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THE   LIFE   OF 


EDWARD  WHITE   BENSON 

SOMETIME    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CANTERBURY 


BY   HIS    SON 

ARTHUR    CHRISTOPHER    BENSON 

OF    ETON     COLLEGE 


'"'■  Not  only  to  believe  on  Htjn,  but  also  to  suffer  for  His  sake,  having 
the  same  conflict  which  ye  saw  in  me,  and  now  hear  to  be  in  meP 


IN   TWO   VOLUMES 
VOL.    II. 


MACMILLAN    AND    CO.,    Limited 

NEW  YORK:    THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1899 

\All  Rights  reserved^ 


PRINTED    BY  J.    AND   C.    F.    CLAY, 
AT   THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


CONTENTS. 


THE   PRIMACY. 

CHAPTER   I.     (1883— 1885.) 

Private  Diary — Confirmation — Enthronement — Opening  work — A 
holiday  in  Yorkshire— In  Dovedale — Home  Missions— Death  of 
the  Duke  of  Albany— At  Addington— The  Egyptian  Campaign — 
"Honourable  Women"— Dr  Temple's  appointment  to  London — 
Death  of  Bishop  Wordsworth  of  Lincoln  — The  Restoration  of 
Peterborough  Cathedral— The  Revised  Version  of  the  Bible- 
Pressure  of  work — Diocesan  Conference  —  In  Switzerland — The 
General  Election  of  1885. 

CHAPTER   H. 

Parliamentary  work — Ecclesiastical  Courts — Church  Progress — 
Patronage  Bill— Clergy  Discipline  Bill— Church  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee— Benefices  Bill — The  House  of  Lords. 


CHAPTER   HI.     (1886— 1887.) 

A  feverish  attack— Opening  of  Parliament— House  of  Laymen— 
Bamborough  Castle— In  Holland  and  Belgium— The  Queen's  Jubilee 
— Powers  of  work— The  Lakes— At  Wolverhampton— Consecration  of 
Truro  Cathedral — At  Addington. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Eastern  Churches— The  Greek  Church— The   Bishopric   of 
Jerusalem— The  Assyrian  Mission. 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  V.     (1888— 1889.) 

The  "Old  Catholic"  Movement— The  Sweating  Commission- 
Revisiting  Cambridge— Third  Lambeth  Conference— A  Holiday  in 
Scotland— Bishop  Lightfoot's  illness— Attitude  towards  Ritual. 

CHAPTER   VI.     (1889— 1890.) 

The  Prince  of  Wales  at  Lambeth — Arbitration — Armenian  troubles 
—  Sixtieth  Birthday — Mr  Spurgeon — In  Switzerland — In  Wales — 
Illness  and  death  of  Mrs  Hare— Death  of  Bishop  Lightfoot— Dr  West- 
cott's  appointment  to  Durham — In  Birmingham — In  Switzerland — 
Death  of  his  eldest  daughter. 

CHAPTER   Vn. 

The  Lincoln  Trial — The  Archiepiscopal  Court — Bishop  King's 
Protest — The  Judgment — The  Appeal. 

CHAPTER   VIII.     (1890— 1892.) 

At  Reigate — Christmas  at  Addington — Confirmation  of  Archbishop 
Magee — Sisterhoods — At  Pontresina — Welsh  Disestablishment — In 
Algeria — Death  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence — Clergy  Discipline  Bill — 
Ordination  at  Canterbury — In  Yorkshire — In  Scotland. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Missions — S.P.G. — C.M.S. — Mahomedanism — Missions  in  Japan 
— Metropolitans  of  the  Colonial  Church — The  Canadian  Church — The 
South  African  Church — The  Natal  Controversy. 

CHAPTER   X.     (1893— 1894.) 

The  Disestablishment  Movement — At  Florence — Convocation — 
Church  Defence — Suspensory  Bill — Marriage  of  the  Duke  of  York — 
In  Switzerland — The  Home  Rule  Bill — The  Birmingham  Congress — 
Diffusion  of  Church  Knowledge  at  home — The  Parish  Councils  Bill 
— At  Florence — Visiting  the  Italian  Cities — The  Bishops'  Manifesto 
on  Disestablishment — The  Deceased  Wife's  Sister  Bill — Christmas  at 
Addington. 

CHAPTER  XL 

The  attempted  Rapprochement  with  Rome — The  Position  of  the 
AngHcan  Church— Lord  Halifax  and  Abbd  Portal— The  Pope's 
Encyclical— The  Anglican  Orders— The  Papal  Bull— Archbishop 
Benson's  drafted  Reply. 


CONTENTS  vii 


CHAPTER  XII.     (1895.) 

Voluntary  Schools — Death  of  Dean  Payne  Smith — At  Florence — 
At  Bristol — The  Kilburn  Sisterhood — The  Deceased  Wife's  Sister  Bill 
— The  Sunday  Observance  Bill — A  Pastoral  Tour — Convocation — At 
Malvern — With  Mr  Gladstone  at  Hams  —  Religious  Education — 
The  Czar's  Coronation. 

CHAPTER   Xni. 

Churchmanship — Archbishop  Tait's  position— At  work  on  Cyprian 
— Attitude  to  Higher  Criticism — Views  on  Establishment — Bishop 
Westcott's  sketch  of  the  Archbishop's  Church  life. 

CHAPTER  XIV.     (1896.) 

Opening  of  the  year — Manning's  Life— At  Florence — The  Education 
Bill — The  Clergy  Sustentation  Bill — Convocation  —  Ordination  at 
Canterbury — At  Cambridge — At  Eton — The  wedding  of  Princess 
Maud — Cardinal  Vaughan's  Speech — In  Ireland — The  Pope's  En- 
cyclical— At  Hawarden — Last  Letters. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

The  development  of  Archbishop  Benson's  character — Puritanical 
traits — Artistic  and  Poetical  traits — Adeline,  Duchess  of  Bedford's 
description — Bishop  Baynes'  description — Bishop  Wilkinson  on  his 
spiritual  life — Prayer — Natural  characteristics. 

CHAPTER  XVI.     (Autumn,   1896.) 

The  Irish  Tour — At  Hawarden — Archbishop  Benson's  death — His 
funeral. 


APPENDIX. 
A  Bibliography  of  the  Printed  Works  of  Archbishop  Benson. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Archbishop  Benson,  1883 Frontispiece 

The  Choir,  Truro  Cathedral facing  p.  148 

Archbishop  Benson,  1890,  from  an  unfinished  sketch 

by  H.  Herkomer,  R.A »        305 

Addington  Park,  1896 „         525 

View  from  Lollard's  Tower,  Lambeth  Palace,  showing 
Morton's  Tower,  the  Great  Hall,  and  the  Tower 
of  Lambeth  Parish  Church „         630 

At  the  Villa  Palmieri,  Florence,  1895       ...  „         635 

The  Archbishop's  body  resting  in  Hawarden  Church  „        778 

The  Archbishop's  grave   in   the    N.W.  aisle   of  the 

nave  of  Canterbury  Cathedral      ....  „         779 

The  Archbishop's  Monument „         782 


CHAPTER    I. 

DIARY. 
"  That  great  glittering  worlds     W.  CORY. 

After  his  succession  to  the  Primacy,  my  father  began 
to  keep  a  very  full,  confidential  and  outspoken  Diary.  It 
is  difficult  indeed  to  imagine  how  he  found  time  to  write 
it,  but  it  was  evidently,  as  a  rule,  written  late  at  night, 
after  the  labours  of  the  day  were  over.  The  whole  book,  in 
its  fourteen  volumes,  is  a  remarkable  historical  document, 
and  I  am  not  without  hope  that  at  some  later  date  more  pages 
of  it  may  be  given  to  the  world.  It  is  so  extraordinarily 
frank  in  its  criticism,  so  full  of  personal  details,  and  deals 
so  boldly  with  recent  events  and  living  persons,  that  the 
greater  part  could  not  be  printed  at  present,  consistently 
with  the  exercise  of  a  due  discretion.  It  acted  for  my 
father  as  a  kind  of  safety-valve :  the  depression,  the 
irritation,  the  disappointment  that  must  necessarily  attend 
so  eager  and  masterful  a  temperament  while  striving  to  carry 
out  a  policy  deemed  essential  to  religion  in  the  face  of  so 
much  opposition  and  indifference — all  these  are  recorded 
in  the  Diary  :  not  less  poignant  is  the  picture  he  uncon- 
sciously draws  of  a  man  of  deeply  spiritual  instincts,  with  a 
deliberate  hankering  after  study  and  seclusion,  forced  day 
after  day  to  organise,  to  superintend  and  to  direct  a  mass 
of  practical  enterprises,  both  small  and  great.  In  his  letters, 
speeches  and  private  conversation,  he  assumed  of  set 
purpose  a  brighter  tone ;    but  in  the   Diary  are   written 

B.  II.  I 


2  DIARY  AET.  53 

plainly  enough  the  struggles,  the  fears,  the  agonies  that 
he  did  not  allow  to  appear  in  face  or  voice  or  gesture. 

From  this  time  his  life  was  not  eventful  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  but  there  were  questions  of  great  importance  like 
the  Ritual  Question,  the  Lincoln  Case,  and  the  Question 
of  the  Papal  Claims,  which  extended  over  a  series  of  years  ; 
new  interests  springing  up,  new  actions  and  organisations 
in  which  the  Church  was  taking  part.  Some  of  these  need 
for  clearer  treatment  chapters  by  themselves  ;  at  the  same 
time  these  matters  are  in  themselves  so  complicated  and 
of  so  recent  interest  that  a  complete  historical  handling  of 
them  is  out  of  the  question  in  such  a  personal  biography 
as  the  present  Memoir  ;  I  shall  therefore  only  attempt  to 
indicate  the  Archbishop's  attitude  to  these  questions,  and 
leave  them  to  be  treated  by  the  historian  of  the  future  in 
a  more  competent  manner.  We  are  too  near  them  at 
present  to  see  these  controversies  in  right  proportion,  and 
many  documents  very  material  to  these  grave  subjects 
cannot  at  the  present  time,  for  personal  reasons,  see  the 
light.  For  the  rest,  I  propose  to  give  a  rough  outline  of 
his  official  life,  with  such  extracts  from  the  Diary  as  are 
illustrative  of  personal  life  and  character  or  touch  on 
matters  of  public  interest ;  arranging  the  special  episodes 
so  that  the  critical  points  shall  fit  in  as  nearly  as  possible 
with  their  historical  sequence. 

On  January  9th,  1883,  the  Archbishop-designate  went 
to  Osborne  to  have  an  interview  with  the  Queen.  He 
writes : — 

Tuesday,  Jan.  9,  1883.  To  Osborne,  the  Queen  sending 
her  yacht  to  Southampton  for  me. 

Had  a  very  long — about  an  hour's — most  interesting  and 
stirring  conversation  with  the  Queen — of  which  elsewhere.  Her 
sagacity  in  reading  people  and  their  ruling  motives  and  weak- 
nesses, and  a  little  disposition  (though  very  little  and  scarce  more 
than  to  show  her  complete  grasp  of  them)  to  be  quietly  amused 


i883  CONFIRMATION  3 

at  them,  struck  me  very  much.  Quite  as  much  also,  the  fearless 
confidence  with  which  she  said  out  all  these  insights,  and  all  that 
she  had  to  say  on  modes  of  dealing.  Partly  resumed  at  dinner 
and  after.  She  left  me  much  wiser  about  a  good  many  men  than 
I  expected  to  be. 

She  has  most  earnest  views  as  to  the  maintenance  of  Establish- 
ment. 

The  early  weeks  of  1883  were  spent  in  endeavouring 
at  the  same  time  to  make  arrangements  for  clearing  off 
necessary  business  at  Truro,  and  to  deal  with  the 
immense  mass  of  correspondence  which  began  to  pour 
in  upon  the  new  Archbishop. 

On  Saturday,  the  3rd  March,  the  Archbishop  was  con- 
firmed in  Bow  Church,  with  the  grotesque  ceremonies  in 
use  ;  no  answer  was  made  to  the  challenge  for  opposers 
to  come  forward^  ;  the  Bishop  of  London  (Jackson)  pre- 
sided, and  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  (Temple)  was  one  of  the 
Bishops  present.  As  the  procession  left  the  Church,  a 
rush  was  made  to  the  table,  and  an  enterprising  gentleman 
appropriated  the  blotting-pad  on  which  appeared  the  re- 
verse of  the  first  signature,  Edw.  Cajituar. 

To  Cano7i  Mason  {in  reply  to  news  from  Cornwall). 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

13  March,   1883. 

Your  most  loving  letter  is  very  dear.  The  whirl  and  whizz 
of  work  unutterable  is  all  traced  over  with  voices  and  shadows 
of  the  West.  I  know  you  will  hold  all  together  and  be  of  one 
heart,  and  when  Wilkinson  comes  it  will  all  be  well.  But  now  I 
can't  fancy  you  without  me,  which  is  vain — nor  me  without  you, 
which  is  too  sad. 

Windsor  was  very  very  nice.     The  Queen  is  wonderful ! 

Your  Agapon. 
Love  omnibus  meis  ac  tuis. 

'  The  Archbishop  always  maintained  that  the  challenge  is  only  to  those 
who  have  anything  to  object  as  regards  the  personal  identity,  character  or 
attainments  of  the  Archbishop  or  Bishop,  not  as  regards  his  doctrine.  See 
p.   390. 


4  HOUSE   OF   LORDS  aet.  53 

To  Canon    Wickenden  {on  wearing  his  hair  long). 

Lambeth  Palace. 

March,  1883. 
Dearest  F., 

As  to  the  Hair  !  Opinions  are  divided.  Some  desire 
me  to  be  Cometes,  others  would  have  me  as  "  bolch  "  as  the  moon. 
But  long  hair  (if  any)  is  the  tradition  of  the  primacy  I  am  told  ! 
God  bless  you  for  all  your  love  and  your  fun. 

The  Archbishop  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords 
on  Monday,  March  12th  ;  on  the  19th  he  went  to  Windsor 
to  be  sworn  of  the  Privy  Council.  The  previous  day  he 
had  preached  in  the   Chapel   Royal.     He   notes  : — 

March  i2>th,  1883.  Palm  Sunday.— St  Edward's  Day.  Preach- 
ed in  Chapel  Royal,  St  James's.  The  "  natural  curiosity  "  is  such, 
that  it  is  said  five  times  as  many  tickets  are  asked  as  there  are 
places.  My  curiosity  is  as  great  as  theirs  to  know  how  the  new 
Archbishop'  will  be  able  dvaa-Tpi^^ea-Oai  iv  oikw  @€ov\  My  on/y 
confidence  is  that  He  will  not  fail  to  support   His  own  Call — 

eavTov    aTvapvilcrOai  ov  Swarat  ^. 

He  was  enthroned  at  Canterbury  on  the  29th  of  March, 
in  the  presence  of  a  vast  congregation.  The  lily-of-the- 
valley  was  generally  worn,  as  the  supposed  emblem  of 
Thomas-a-Becket ;  though  "  a  Somersetshire  Rector  "  wrote 
to  the  Times  to  beg  people  before  "  denuding  the  con- 
servatories" to  read  Froude's  Essay  on  "that  turbulent 
prelate,"  going  on  to  suggest  that  "  the  tiger  lily  (though 
unfortunately  not  now  in  bloom)  would  be  a  more  appro- 
priate flower." 

The  ceremony  of  Enthronement  had  been  revived  by 
Archbishop    Sumner*,  it    having   until    then    fallen    into 

^  To  walk  in  the  House  of  God. 
^  Himself  He  cannot  deny. 
*  April  28,  1848. 


i883  ENTHRONEMENT  5 

desuetude^  the  ceremony  being  performed  by  proxy ;  for 
instance,  in  1783,  when  John  Moore  was  appointed  Arch- 
bishop, the  Vice-Dean  was  installed  in  the  Archiepiscopal 
Throne,  the  Patriarchal  Chair  and  the  Dean's  Stall,  and 
the  Chapter  took  the  oath  of  Canonical  obedience  to  him. 
Archbishops  were  not  over  popular  at  Canterbury,  and 
there  is  a  tradition  that  at  one  visit  paid  by  Archbishop 
Howley  to  his  metropolitical  city,  after  the  rejection  of  the 
Reform  Bill,  stones  were  thrown  at  his  carriage.  It  is  said 
too  that  on  the  same  occasion  one  of  his  chaplains  com- 
plained of  having  had  a  dead  cat  thrown  at  him,  when 
Archbishop  Howley  replied  that  he  should  be  thankful  it 
was  not  a  live  one. 

Archbishop  Benson  arrived  the  day  before  the  En- 
thronement by  special  train  at  3.30  p.m.  No  one  travelled 
with  us  except  a  few  personal  friends  ;  I  was  struck  at  the 
time  at  the  tranquillity  and  cheerfulness  of  my  father.  He 
talked  about  a  number  of  interesting  things  and  displayed 
neither  agitation  nor  preoccupation.  He  was  received  by  the 
Mayor  and  the  Dean  with  a  Guard  of  Honour  of  Kent  Rifle 
Volunteers  and  Kent  Yeomanry  to  whom  he  made  a  short 
speech;  he  then  drove  to  the  Guildhall  where  he  was  greeted 
with  loud  blasts  upon  the  Wardmote  horn,  irreverently 
received  with  loud  laughter ;  the  Mayor  presented  an 
address  from  the  Corporation,  and  the  Archbishop  spoke 
at  some  length ;  noticing  that  Cornish  Choughs  were 
included  in  the  City  Arms,  and  were  represented  in  the 
jewel  round  the  Mayor's  neck,  the  Archbishop  said  : — 

As  a  Cornishman  I  claim  the  same  privilege  as  the  three 
Cornish  Choughs  to  come  and  live  here,  where  they  have  lived, 
under  the  roof  of  your  Guildhall  and  close  to  the  heart  of  your 
Mayor.  You  have  admitted  three  and  I  hope  you  will  admit 
a  fourth.     I  must  not  close  this  part  of  my  address  without  saying 

1  Archbishop  Wake  was  the  last  Archbishop  enthroned  in  person,  June  15, 
1716. 


6  ENTHRONEMENT  aet.  53 

of  the  Cornish  Chough  that  he  is  a  very  home-loving  bird — he 
cUngs  to  his  home  in  the  rocks  and  gives  utterance  to  the  most 
melodious  screams  (laughter),  and  it  is  there  that  his  red  legs 
and  bill  are  to  be  seen  flashing  upon  the  rocks.  When  he  has 
taken  up  his  home  on  the  rock  it  is  difficult  to  detach  him  from 
it. 

On  the  following  day  he  was  enthroned.  There  were 
present  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  representing  the  Queen, 
many  of  the  principal  laity  of  Kent,  and  most  of  the 
Bishops  of  Great  Britain.  He  was  installed  as  by  ancient 
custom  by  Bishop  Parry,  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  the 
Archdeacon  of  Canterbury  having  the  right  to  enthrone, 
induct,  and  instal  all  English  Bishops  of  the  Southern 
Province^  as  Suffragans  of  the  Metropolitical  See,  as  well 
as  the  Archbishop  himself. 

The  Times  wrote  of  the  Archbishop's  appearance  at 
the  West  Door :  "  With  neither  affected  humility  nor  any 
manifestation  of  unbecoming  pride,  but  as  one  deeply 
impressed  with  the  consciousness  of  the  heavy  responsi- 
bilities devolving  on  him,  he  moved  with  firm  steps  and 
a  certain  stateliness  not  unbecoming  one  called  to  his  high 
office."  The  train  was  carried  by  his  son  Robert  Hugh 
Benson,  then  a  boy  of  ten,  and  by  a  King's  Scholar  of 
Canterbury,  vested  in  surplices  and  purple  cassocks.  Almost 
the  most  solemn  moment,  which  no  one  present  could  ever 
forget,  was  the  reading  of  the  Second  Lesson,  from  St 
John  xxi.  from  a  lectern  facing  west  under  the  choir 
screen,  by  Archdeacon  Harrison,  of  Maidstone.  It  was 
read  with  a  dramatic  dignity  and  a  pathetic  power  that 
were  indescribably  moving. 

^  There  is  an  interesting  volume  in  the  possession  of  the  Archdeacon  of 
Canterbury  which  contains  formulas  for  enthronements,  and  a  list  of  Archi- 
diaconal  fees,  which  included  the  horse,  with  saddle  and  bridle,  on  which  the 
Bishop  rode  to  the  Church,  a  silver  cup,  of  ten  marks  value,  hospitality  and 
provision  for  himself  and  retinue  for  several  days,  with  especial  provision  for  a 
cup  of  the  best  wine  to  be  placed  at  the  Archdeacon's  bedside  every  night. 


i883  ENTHRONEMENT  7 

At  the  luncheon  held  in  the  Chapter  Library,  in  answer 
to  the  toast  of  his  health  proposed  by  the  Dean,  the 
Archbishop  made  an  impressive  speech :  he  dwelt  much 
on  the  qualities  of  his  predecessor  and  the  essential  con- 
cord of  the  Church  of  England.     He  said  : — 

In  contending  for  spiritual  freedom  we  do  not  seek  what  some 
of  the  greatest  of  those  who  have  sate  in  the  chair  of  Augustine 
have  sought  and  obtained — temporal  dominion  in  the  world. 
Whenever  there  has  been  a  grasping  to  gather  into  the  bosom 
of  the  Church  temporal  dominion  which  she  has  no  right  to 
claim  and  no  power  to  use,  there  has  been,  my  dear  friends,  a 
heavy  account  to  settle,  even  if  it  were  two  or  three  centuries 

after The  Church  of  England  has  no  fear.     She  need  never 

be  afraid  of  education,  never  afraid  of  research,  or  anything  that 
science  or  philosophy  may  find  out,  because  science  and  phi- 
losophy have  their  fountains  in  the  Throne  above. 

He  visited  St  Augustine's  College,  and  spoke  with 
deep  feeling  of  the  week  that  he  had  spent  there  in  1850 
"  in  loneliness  and  sadness "  after  his  terrible  bereave- 
ment, drawing  comfort  and  joy  from  the  venerable  walls 
and  the  simple  services  of  the  chapel. 

On  the  1st  of  May  he  spoke  at  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  meeting.     He  writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Tuesday,  May  i,  1883. — Spoke  for  Church  Missionary  Society 
to  a  vast  (crowded  actually)  mass  of  people  at  Exeter  Hall : 
urged  them  to  consider  that  educated,  cultivated  men,  Hindoos, 
etc.,  had  souls  not  less  dear  to  God  than  the  souls  of  the  ignorant. 
I  am  mistaken  if  this  Society  is  not  fast  adding  to  its  faith  virtue. 

Friday,  May  4. — With  dear  wife  for  a  short  time  to  private 
view  of  Royal  Academy.  The  most  touching  picture  I  have  ever 
seen  bears  on  the  mysteries  of  animal  life  and  feeling.  The  collie 
putting  its  paw  on  the  knee  of  the  dying  child  and  looking — if 
it  is  looking— just  as  my  Watch  looks  at  a  mystery  which  moves 
his  feelings.  Something  or  other,  whatever  it  may  be,  passes 
out  by  a  dog's  eyes,  not  merely  is  taken  into  them  :  the  human 
eye  is  not  used  thus,  because  we  have  speech.  And  Riviere  has 
seen  this,  and  I  have  seen  it. 


8  FIRST   SPEECH   IN   THE   HOUSE         aet.  53 

Early  in  the  same  month  the  Cathedral  Statutes  Bill 
was  brought  before  the  House  of  Lords  by  the  Bishop  of 
Carlisle.  The  Archbishop  spoke  for  the  first  time,  and  with 
obvious  nervousness.  The  object  of  the  Bill  was  to  enable 
Cathedral  Statutes  to  be  altered  and  modified  conveniently 
and  to  give  legal  statutes  to  Cathedrals  that  were  without 
them.  The  Bishop  of  Peterborough  (Magee)  spoke  strongly 
against  the  Bill,  which  he  thought  would  lead  to  an  unde- 
sirable intervention  of  Parliament  between  the  Crown  and 
the  Cathedrals^ 

In  the  same  month  the  Archbishop  paid  several  visits 

in  the  Diocese ;  on   May  5th  he  writes :  — 

Saturday :  Chevening. — Endless  goodness  from  Lord  and 
Lady  Stanhope — and  quantities  of  interests  in  the  house  and 
library.  The  goodness  we  have  received  here  seems  almost  to 
come  in  special  annihilation  of  the  deepest  wound  my  pride  ever 
received— when  his  father^,  asking  me  a  question,  and  receiving 
from  me  the  simplest  and  most  straightforward  answer  possible, 
turned  to  the  Prince  Consort  and  said,  "Sir,  here  is  another  fact 
elicited."     Pax  illi !     The  memorials  of  a  good  ancestry  abound. 

Dr  Gifford  writes  : — 

When  the  translation  to  Canterbury  in  1882  was  first  made 
known,  I  happened  to  be  staying  at  Fulham  with  Bishop  Jackson, 
who  on  hearing  the  news  burst  out  into  unfeigned  delight,  exclaim- 
ing that  the  choice  was  the  very  best  that  could  have  been  made, 
and  the  one  which  he  had  hoped  and  prayed  for. 

Some  months  later  I  was  invited  to  a  dinner  given  in  honour 
of  the  Archbishop  by  his  old  school-fellows.  His  most  intimate 
friend,  Dr  Lightfoot,  then  Bishop  of  Durham,  was  in  the  Chair,  and 
sitting  on  his  left  hand  I  could  observe  closely  the  intense  emotion 
by  which  he  was  overcome  in  proposing  the  Archbishop's  health. 

Trembling  all  over  and  with  tears  streaming  down  his  face 
Lightfoot  told  us  how  on  the  very  first  day  of  his  entering  King 
Edward's  School,  Benson,  who  had  been  some  time  in  the  School, 
showed  him  much  kindness,  and  walked  home  with  him,  "and 

^  The  Bill  was  passed  in  the  Lords,  but  withdrawn  in  the  Commons  on 
Aug.  7.     Another  Bill  introduced  in  1884  was  withdrawn  also. 

"  Philip  Henry,  5th  Earl  Stanhope,  was  a  Governor  of  Wellington  College. 


i883  "THE   MARTYRED   LAUD"  9 

from  that  day  to  this,"  said  Lightfoot,  "  I  do  not  believe  there 
has  been  a  thought  or  wish  in  the  mind  or  heart  of  either  which 
he  has  not  shared  with  the  other." 

The  Bishop  then  went  on  to  speak  of  the  grand  and  powerful 
position  held  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  as  the  recognised 
head  of  the  whole  English-speaking  race  in  Communion  with  the 
Church  of  England  throughout  the  world,  a  position  which  he 
regarded  as  little  inferior  even  now  to  that  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  and  destined  at  no  distant  date  to  be  even  greater. 

It  was  on  the  loth  of  May  that  he  was  entertained  at 
dinner  by  his  old  Birmingham  school-fellows  ;  the  Arch- 
bishop writes  : — 

Thursday,  May  10.  A  dinner  given  by  old  pupils  of  King 
Edward's  School  to  their  unworthy  school-fellow  the  Archbishop. 
It  was  a  sort  of  resurrection.  So  few  of  them  have  I  seen  in  the 
meantime  though  those  few  are  the  dearest  friends.  The  faces 
of  so  many  are  so  familiar  and  recognisable  on  the  instant — not 
changed  so  much  as  translated  into  a  manlier  nobler  tongue. 
I  made  an  unlucky  but  innocent  and  not  to  be  recalled  observa- 
tion which  I  shall  not  soon  hear  the  end  of.  I  was  speaking  of 
the  many  strange  and  unexpected  associations  which,  turning  up 
or  being  realised,  make  the  new  life  so  "  dream-like  "  for  the  time 
being.  Among  these  I  mentioned  the  stall  in  Lambeth  Chapel, 
the  very  stall  which  Laud  erected  with  the  screen — and  of  his 
being  the  man  who,  I  said,  "in  spite  of  his  misjudgments  and 
misunderstanding  of  what  was  good  for  Church  and  for  State' 
alike,  had  set  the  great  example  of  devotion  to  the  English 
Church  and  had  undoubtedly  died  for  her."  The  Standard 
reported  me  as  having  said  "how  I  sate  in  the  Chair  of  the 
martyred  Laud,"  without  anything  else  of  my  language  about  him. 
The  Spectator  and  the  Pall  Mall  and  others  in  full  cry  have 
assaulted  me  daily  now  for  ten  days  as  taking  Laud  for  my  "model 
Archbishop  "  and  glorying  to  sit  on  "  the  Throne  of  the  martyred 
Laud."  I  will  be  more  careful  \  Yet  what  care  can  avoid  such 
perversion  as  is  partly  a  blunder  and  partly  a  malice?  The 
Spectator  has  an  antipathy  to  an  archbishop,  and  pursued  the  last 
as  a  Broad  Churchman,  and  this  as  a  Laudian. 

^  The  speech  is  reported  truly  and  in  full  in  King  Edward's  School 
Magazine,  Birmingham. 


lo  "THE   MARTYRED   LAUD"  aet.  53 

My  words  did  not  include  "martyred,"  which  was  only  an 
abstract  by  the  Standard  itself.  Bp  of  Durham  remembers  all 
the  other  expressions  and  does  not  remember  this  or  would  have 
been  struck  with  it.  It  is  curious  that  the  expression  of  one 
reporter's  view  of  what  one  means  may  set  the  whole  press  on  fire 
with  a  mistaken  term.  The  "martyred  Laud"  threatens  to  be 
a  proverb  !  I  will  bide  my  time  and  pluck  a  crow  by-and-bye 
with  the  "Inquisitor." 

He  wrote  at  the  time  to  his  old  friend  Bishop  Lightfoot 

on  the  subject : — 

RiSEHOLME,  Lincoln. 

May  \\th,  1883. 

Dearest  Brother, 

Did  you  see  these  two  articles? 

If  I  had  said  "The  Martyred  Laud,"  even  in  a  rash  slip,  there 
would  be  nothing  to  say.  But  I  think  I  can  trust  my  memory  of 
what  I  did  say,  as  well  as  my  notion  of  what  I  should  be  likely 
to  say.  And  I  am  pretty  sure  it  is  not  my  way  of  talking,  and  not 
what  I  said.  On  the  contrary,  I  spoke  of  Laud's  "  misreading  of 
his  times,  misunderstanding  and  misjudgment  of  what  was  good 
for  either  Church  or  State."     I  feel  sure  of  this. 

Do  you  think  it  would  be  well  for  me — (I  think  you  will  not) 
or  for  anyone  who  was  present,  to  contradict  it? 

How  shall  I  thank  you,  dear  old  friend,  for  what  you  said  as 
to  your — if  only  one  could  grow  worthier  of  it ! — Love.  And  now 
I  think  these  articles  will  give  you  an  opening  (if  you  will  but 
use  it  in  your  friendship)  for  telling  me  as  you  find  occasion,  and 
as  soon  as  may  be,  two  or  three  things  which  you  clearly  see  I 
must  try  to  avoid,  and  am  prone  to,  as  you  half  hinted  you  would 
in  your  kind  letter  some  time  back. 

Best  love.  When  you  come  to  Town  would  you  rather  be 
at  Lollard's  Tower  or  with  us?  Please  do  what  you  find  best, 
but  do  come  to  us  occasionally. 

Your  loving,   Edw.  C. 

The  following  note  was  added  nearly  a  year  afterwards, 
in  March,  1884: — 

Next  scene  of  "  The  martyred  Laud."  In  moving  the  resolu- 
tion in  the  Commons  for  removing  the  Bishops  from  the  House 
of  Lords  (March  21,  1884),  Mr  Willis  among  the  crimes  of  the 


i883  VISIT  TO  THE   QUEEN  ii 

Prelates  averred  that  when  the  present  Primate  was  enthroned  at 
Canterbury,  he  could  find  no  comparison  to  describe  his  feelings 
in  his  speech  on  that  occasion,  but  to  compare  them  with  those 
of  Laud  !     "  Cheers  "  from  the  House  of  Commons  ! 

On  the  nth  he  had  an  interesting  interview  with  the 
Queen  : — 

May  nth.  Went  with  Davidson  to  see  the  Queen  and  his 
Deanery '....The  Queen  said  to-day,  "As  I  get  older  I  cannot 
understand  the  world.  I  cannot  comprehend  its  littlenesses.  When 
I  look  at  the  frivolities  and  littlenesses,  it  seems  to  me  as  if  they 
were  all  a  little  mad."  She  said,  too,  "The  wickedness  of 
people's  spite  against  one  another  is  so  great." 

Davidson's  simple  and  comforting  frankness  will  be  a  great 
strength  to  her.  She  desired  him  not  to  leave  me  until  the 
summer :    "  Let  the  canons  work,  let  the  canons  work." 

On  the  following  day  he  was  present  at  the  opening  of 
the  Fisheries  Exhibition,  and  said  a  prayer :  he  then  went 
down  to  Croydon  to  confirm  and  afterwards  held  a  reception. 
He  adds : — 

All  seem  to  feel  Archbishop  Tait's  death  as  a  charge  to  them 
to  receive  with  lovingness  his  successor,  who,  I  am  sure,  has  need 
of  it.  "  As  he  was  following  the  ewes  great  with  young  ones  He 
took  him."  May  He  add  "the  faithful  and  true  heart,"  to  forget 
self.  To  be  tender  to  hardness.  Not  to  yearn  for  sympathy 
which  it  seems  His  will  to  withhold. 

On  the  1 6th  he  visited  Lincoln  : — 

Wednesday,  May  i6th.  Evening  service  at  Lincoln  Minster. 
The  dear  Lincolners  came  in  a  crowd.  The  boys  gave  up  their 
very  half  holiday  to  come  to  sing.  No  such  people  as  Lincolners 
when  their  friendship  is  once  made. 

The  Bishop  still  rises  at  six ;  still  reads  and  writes  as  much  as 
ever ;  still  quotes  fathers  and  classics  aptly  and  abundantly,  and 
still  reasons  as  ill  and  is  as  beautifully  courtly  as  ever.  One  of  his 
excellent  quotations  was  Caesar's  character  of  the  Britons  as  the 
weakness  of  the  English  Church,  "singuli  pugnant,  universi  vin- 
cuntur." 

'  He  had  been  recently  appointed  Dean  of  Windsor. 


12  EVANGELICALISM  aet.  53 

On  the  26th  of  May  he  went  down  to  Tunbridge 
Wells.     He  writes: — 

On  Saturday  went  to  Tunbridge  Wells  and  confirmed  400 
people  in  Canon  Hoare's  church  :  on  Sunday  morning  39  boys 
in  Tonbridge  School  Chapel,  in  the  evening  138,  of  whom  about 
40  were  adults,  and  this  morning  above  100  in  St  Stephen's. 
Most  interesting  confirmations  in  the  very  Beulah  of  these 
darling  old  Evangelicals.  We  stayed  most  happily  with  the 
Deacons  in  their  beautiful  home,  meeting  there  Bishop  and  Mrs 
Parry,  the  Melvilles,  and  the  EvangeUcal  Shepherds  and  Sheep, 
for  Mr  Deacon  suffers  none  beside.  They  are  all  right — they  hold 
nothing  but  the  truth  and  they  hold  it  strongly,  consistently, 
sweetly,  but  with  just  a  little  tinge  of  Torquemada.  They  are 
only  short  of  the  full  TcXetdTT??^  They  are  happy  in  the  Court 
of  Israel  and  of  the  Women.  They  have  never  seen  the  Court  of 
the  Priests.  I  keep  back  nothing  from  them  in  my  addresses,  yet 
they  did  not  seem  displeased.  There  is  something  in  Evangeli- 
calism, as  it  exists  now,  in  "  Protestant  Truth,"  as  dear  Mr  Deacon 
calls  it,  which  is  very  concordant  with  wealth. 

May  2<)th.  A  terrible  day  of  hurried  and  impatient  work. 
Every  morning,  thanks  to  God,  a  perfectly  unclouded  conviction 
that  this  day  is  going  to  be  serene  and  orderly  and  full  of  smooth 
strong  work.  Every  evening,  thanks  to  myself,  utter  and  entire 
dissatisfaction  with  every  hour.  Bed  at  one  or  half-past  one  each 
morning,  almost  untired,  yet  the  shoulders  galled,  not  by  the 
weight  but  the  friction.  The  psalms  to-night  a  great  comfort,  and 
I  think  they  were  Laud's  last  in  the  chapel. 

June  nth.  The  Bill  legalising  marriage  with  Deceased  Wife's 
Sister  was  ordered  to  be  read  a  second  time  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  Arnold  said,  when  the  steam  of  the  first  locomotive  passed 
Rugby,  "  There  is  the  death  blow  of  the  Feudal  System."  This  is 
the  first  real  dissilience  of  the  Law  of  England  and  the  Law  of 
the  Church. 

I  spoke  with  all  my  might  on  the  common  arguments  which 
were  flat  for  very  staleness  in  spite  of  importance,  but  the  House 
seemed  pleased  at  my  maintaining  that  "Theology"  was  the 
Science  of  religion.  The  word  begins  to  be  used  contemptuously, 
and  must  not  be. 

^  Perfection. 


i883  SERMON   AT   ST   PAUL'S  13 

On  the  22nd  of  June  he  went  to  the  Crystal  Palace  to 
the  Handel  Festival.     He  says  : — 

June  22nd.  With  dear  wife  to  "  Israel  in  Egypt "  at  the  Handel 
Festival.  They  received  us  with  much  honour;  there  were 
22,000  people  at  least  present  and  4,000  in  the  orchestra.  The 
truth  of  Handel's  genius  is  in  nothing  more  manifest  than  in  the 
ever  increasing  glory  of  his  work,  as  it  is,  so  to  speak,  more  and 
more  magnified.  Other  works  reveal  their  thinness  of  tissue  when 
they  are  committed  to  orchestras  far  beyond  the  author's  possibility 
of  even  imagining. 

June  2\th.  Preached  to  a  terrific  congregation  crowding  the 
transept  and  down  almost  to  the  west  end  and  standing  in  the 
gangways  at  St  Paul's.  These  scenes  must  come  to  an  end,  but  I 
wonder  that  their  curiosity  lasts  so  long.  When  they  find  what 
few  barley  loaves  and  what  very  small  fishes  this  poor  soul,  hungry 
itself,  possesses,  this  five  thousand  must  melt  away.  Or  will  Christ 
have  compassion  ?  Meanwhile  let  us  make  what  running  we  can. 
The  Church  of  England  has  to  be  built  up  again  from  the  very 
bottom.  It  is  the  lower  and  lower-middle  classes  who  must  be  won. 
All  else  would  be  comparatively  easy.  And  it  must  be  humility, 
intense  devotion,  and  talking  of  English  tongue  which  must  be 
laid  at  the  disposal  of  the  poor.  There  is  little  to  be  done  yet 
with  the  rich.  And  there  is  nothing  to  be  done  by  force  majeure, 
by  exhibiting  our  claims  on  allegiance.  Our  claims  must  be  our 
work.  If  our  Faith  is  to  be  shown  by  our  Works,  our  "  Succes- 
sion "  may  (with  all  its  rights)  put  up  with  the  same  claim  to 
a  hearing  and  a  trial. 

July  i6ih,  Monday.  Went  with  Minnie  to  call  on  Mrs  Procter, 
my  father's  first  cousin ;  her  mother,  my  grandfather's  sister, 
married  Mr  Skepper,  and  afterwards  Basil  Montagu ;  and  this 
lady,  of  whom  at  the  age  of  16  there  is  a  charming  description 
in  Fanny  Kemble's  Diary,  married  Mr  Procter,  known  as  Barry 
Cornwall,  and  her  eldest  daughter  was  Adelaide  Procter,  the 
very  sweet  poetess. 

She  is  a  very  old,  dear,  active,  bright  little  lady,  and  something 
like  my  grandmother,  who  was  also  her  first  cousin.  She  showed 
me  a  very  nice  miniature  of  my  great-grandfather,  Mr  Edward 
Benson,  of  York.  She  said  Mrs  Basil  Montagu  used  to  talk  a 
great  deal  of  my  grandfather.  White  Benson,  who  she  said  was  full 
of  quiet  humour.     Once  he  had  been  summoned  at  dead  of  night 


14  ADDINGTON   CHAPEL  aet.  54 

to  a  friend's  house  where  there  was  believed  to  be  an  alarm  of  fire, 
and  he  went  all  over  the  house  with  his  friend.  On  coming  back 
he  said,  "  What  a  very  well-bred  man  that  is ;  he  was  much  dis- 
composed by  his  fire,  yet  he  never  forgot  to  give  me  the  entre'e 
into  every  one  of  his  rooms." 

In  August  he  went  down  to  Addington,  where  he  at 
once  began  to  busy  himself  about  the  house  and  park, 
but  little  guessing  how  he  would  come  to  love  it.  He 
writes  : — 

Thursday,  August  ()th.  Busily  employed  with  workmen  in 
"converting"  the  Chapel.  It  was  hideous,  with  stalls  on  either 
side  the  altar,  and  all  other  seats  eastward.  I  have  brought  down 
Bp  Juxon's  rails,  which  I  found  in  lumber  room  at  Lambeth, 
which  cannot  be  used  in  Chapel  there,  and  some  seat  fronts  which 
were  made  in  imitation  of  Juxon's  work,  and  were  also  in  same 
limbo.  With  these  I  construct  a  screen  which  looks  quite 
Belgian,  and  a  reredos,  and  some  side  panelling,  and  turn  the 
seats  choir-wise.  Nellie  is  to  paint  frescoes  in  red  lines  on  walls, 
and  Fred  (Wickenden)  gives  us  new  glass  and  refits  the  old,  which 
he  gave  us  for  our  chapel  at  Lincoln,  into  the  windows  :  I  hope 
we  shall  obtain  a  quaint  and  grave  effect,  if  not  a  very  exquisite 
one ;  but  we  shall  still  see  what  colours  and  a  little  parquetry  will 
effect. 

Nellie  has  drawn  "  Lazarus,"  Maggie  "  The  New  Jerusalem  "; 
both  good  first  attempts  in  this  style. 

To  his  son  Arthur. 

Addington  Park. 

19  Aug.,  1883. 
Dearest  Arthur, 

I  hope  you  will  not  worry  yourself  about  scholastic 
life,  or  make  any  change  of  plans  with  a  view  to  it.  It's  very  nice, 
but  it's  not  all — and  it  makes  me  sad  to  think  how  many  capable 
men,  who  might  have  added  something  to  the  "  enrichment  of  the 
blood  of  the  world,"  are  by  the  temptations  of  schoolmastering  so 
early  quenched.  Perfect  your  education  on  the  best  and  highest 
lines,  and  the  future  will  be  cared  for. 

I  am  afraid  some  of  the  Bishops  lose  their  reverence,  but  they 


1883  LETTER   TO   HIS   SON  15 

ought  not,  and  I  hope  they  will  not^  in  a  case  I  know  of.  It  must 
be  a  shallow  mind  which,  being  near  in  place,  and  marking  imper- 
fections, fancies  that  the  patch  it  is  close  to  is  all,  and  that  the  all 
is  imperfect.  He  must  be  a  very  unimaginative  man  who,  being 
close  to  the  lower  slopes,  cannot  realise  that  there  are  central 
Alps  behind,  and  actually  loses  the  belief  that  there  are,  by  being 
brought  into  close  neighbourhood  with  those  lower  slopes.  This 
is,  I  suppose,  what  someone  calls  "  the  vulgarity  of  the  Sacristan," 
familiarity  with  the  earthly  sanctuary,  and  its  liability  to  dust  and 
cobweb,  destroying  the  sentiment  and  even  the  faith.  Well,  I 
ramble  on.  I  hope  that  I  shan't,  through  any  error  of  mine, 
lead  my  children  to  forget  the  mystery  that  lives  above  and  beyond 
the  profession.    The  mystery  is  the  true. 

Your  loving  father, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

^  N.B.     I've  seen  not  a  trace  of  it  in  said  case.    This  is  for  fear  you  should 
think  I  '''■mean"  anything. 

September  2nd,  Sunday.  Such  a  bounteous  harvest,  gathered 
in  such  golden  weather,  and  after  it  such  deliberate  soft  rain 
that  you  can  scarcely  see  it  falling  outside  the  windows,  but 
only  the  whole  land  grey  with  it  at  a  short  distance.  Beech 
trees  and  cedars  standing  as  still  as  possible  in  it  with  such  gentle 
slow  wavings  as  to  make  the  most  of  it— like  great  creatures  liking 
to  be  stroked  and  pressing  up  under  your  hand — and  a  bloom 
coming  over  the  grand  flat  boughs  even  while  one  watches 
their  lowering  blackness. 

Sept.  yd.  Matthew  Arnold  is  going  to  America  to  lecture. 
What  a  discipline,  to  grind  for  Philistines  after  he  has  mocked 
them  with  his  foxes  and  firebrands  and  all  his  riddles  so  long  ! 

My  father's  first  meeting  w^ith  Matthew  Arnold  had 
taken  place  at  Rugby.  He  sat  next  him  at  dinner  at  the 
house  of  Mr  Charles  Arnold.  After  dinner,  in  the  course 
of  conversation,  Matthew  Arnold  uttered  some  humorous 
semi-cynical  statement  to  the  effect  that  it  was  useless  to 
attempt  to  enlighten  the  general  public  or  to  give  them  a 
sense  of  due  proportion  in  the  matter  of  truth.  My  father 
was  somewhat  nettled,  and  quoted   a  few  lines  from   the 


i6  MATTHEW   ARNOLD  aet.  54 

celebrated  sermon  of  Dr  Arnold's  on  Christian  Education \ 
Matthew  smiled  very  affectionately  at  him,  drooping  his 
head  sideways  in  his  direction  while  he  patted  his  shoulder, 
saying,  "  Very  graceful  and  appropriate,  my  dear  Benson, 
but  we  must  not  take  for  Gospel  everything  that  dear  Dr 
Arnold  said." 

A  severe  illness  took  up  many  weeks  of  this  autumn, 
and  after  visiting  Lord  Cranbrook,  with  my  mother  and 
sister,  he  went  in  November  to  the  North  to  recruit,  and 
visited  his  Sidgwick  relations  in  Yorkshire  :  he  writes  :— 

Monday,  Nov.  26ih.  Auckland  to  Keighley.  Found  the 
dearest  old  cousin  commonly  called  Aunt,  at  81  ruling  her  little 
Riddlesden  Hall,  with  its  sweet  gables  and  low  large  rooms  and 
unnumbered  mullions,  as  picturesquely  and  briskly  as  ever,  and 
the  parish  with  a  thorough  and  perfect  happiness.  Walked 
straight  up  on  to  Ilkley  Moor,  the  best  walk  in  the  best  air  and 
with  the  least  fatigue  I  have  had  yet. 

They  rang  the  bells  all  afternoon.  How  odd  to  look  back 
on  oneself  a  little  helpless  chap  on  the  top  of  the  coach  going  to 
and  from  Leeds  and  Skipton,  and  chatting  on  the  box  seat  to  the 
coachman  about  eight  and  thirty  years  ago.  And  now,  here  is 
another  box  seat  and  more  helplessness  than  then.  But  the 
Auriga  !     In  Him  is  my  trust. 

He  went  from  Keighley  to  Skipton,  and  writes  :  — 

Nov.  21th.  Skipton  with  Nellie  and  Fowler:  lunched  at  the 
Raikes'  and  saw  everybody.  The  glorious  old  Archdeacon  of 
Craven^  came  to  stay  the  night  at  the  Hall — the  father  of  all  clergy 
progress  in  the  Dales,  still  fresh  and  rosy  as  a  boy.  I  well 
remember  the  thrill  of  and  sense  of  a  holy  man  doing  something 
very  sweet  with  a  slight  dash  of  wrongness  in  it  when  I  first  saw 
him  step  into  his  pulpit  in  his  surplice  to  preach.  His  sympathetic 
counsels  in  youth  have  entered  as  a  most  traceable  thread  into  my 
life,  and  he  was  a  real  ideal  of  what  a  pastor  might  be  and  what  a 

1  Vol.  III.  Sermon  xvi.  p.  199.     Ed.  of  1834. 
'■'  Mr  Robert  Sidgwick's  house  at  Skipton. 
*  Archdeacon  Boyd. 


i883  VISIT  TO   SKIPTON  17 

pastor  was.  He  was  in  his  time  a  great  contrast  to  most  of  what 
surrounded  him.  No  diocese  has  more  eager  clergy  or  nobler 
people.     He  and  my  wife's  father  were  devoted  friends. 

The  castle  was  a  great  delight  to  Nellie — the  dungeon  tower  of 
which  the  very  outside  used  to  be  full  of  awe, — the  window  where 
I  used  to  read  Newman's  Sermons  to  my  splendid  stately  old 
Aunt,  on  condition  that  I  might  be  also  allowed  to  read  her 
Arnold's.  "  Georgii  Monumentum  marmore  perennius "  and 
"Desormais*"  gave  NeUie  all  the  delight  which  one  likes  a 
daughter  to  feel  in  this  early  association ;  as  well  as  the  gateway 
out  of  which  I  used  to  patter  with  Mr  Christopher  to  Church 
at  7  a.m.,  and  she  went  up  the  turret  staircase  and  the  glassy  old 
floor  to  see  my  bedroom. 

Willcock  the  old  clerk  came  down  with  the  manners  of  a  prince 
under  his  white  hair,  black  coat  and  Yorkshire  tongue.  "  I  heard 
His  Grace  wanted  to  see  Willcock,  and  I  said,  '  Then  he  shall  see 
me,'  and  so  I  comed." 

And  old  John  Smith,  who  was  so  attached  to  the  great  Ram 
which  won  all  prizes  for  John  Sidgwick  in  the  country  round,  that 
they  were  inseparable  companions  known  as  "  T'ould  John  Smith 
and  Ram."  Almost  blind,  but  shrewder  than  ever.  "  I  mind 
yer  preaching  last  time  you  was  here."  "Ah,  but  John,  you've 
forgot  the  sermon,  I  know."  "  Well,  I  can^t  say."  Then  he  told 
me  how  lucky  he'd  been  in  a  dangerous  accident,  and  how  he  was 
going  somewhere  else,  when  I  said  "  Good-bye,  John,  I  hope  ye'll 
be  lucky  again."  "Ah,"  said  he,  "I  only  want  now  to  be  loocky 
at  t'last  dee,  that's  the  loock  I  want  now." 

The  mayor  and  some  aldermen,  vicars,  churchwardens,  readers, 
and  a  whole  posse,  came  to  see  me  off.  There  are  no  hearts  like 
these  Yorkshire  hearts.     Blood  is  thicker  than  water  here. 

In  December  he  was  a  good  deal  depressed  both  at  the 
amount,  the  continuousness  and  the  gravity  of  his  work  : 
he  writes  on  Dec.  2nd  : — 

Sunday.  Why  has  He  put  me  in  this  place  ?  Thou 
hast  done  great  things  through  great  souls  becoming  filled  with 
humility  as  the  grace  of  their  childlikeness.  But  my  humility, 
Lord,  is  not  as  theirs.  My  feeling  is  due  to  the  mere  knowledge 
of  my  mere  emptiness.     This  is  clear  to  me  from  the  transitions 

1  The  open  stone-work  inscription  over  the  gateway  of  Skipton  Castle. 
B.  II.  2 


i8  TOUR   IN   DOVEDALE  aet.  54 

to  conceit  which  is  another  form  of  emptiness.  I  am  so  tremu- 
lous :  so  afraid  of  the  face  of  men  :  so  irritated  by  just  carpings 
which  are  despicable  only  because  they  are  carpings,  not  because 
they  are  untrue.  I  cannot  conceive  why  Thou  hast  put  me  here. 
But  then  I  know  nothing  is  so  unlikely  as  that  I  should  be  able  to 
conceive  it,  or  so  wrong  as  that  being  unable  I  should  murmur. 
I  will  only  trust  Thee  to  do  something  with  me  that  shall  be 
to  Thine  honour  and  not  to  my  lasting  shame.  I  will,  I  will 
confide  in  Thy  lovingness,  and  I  shall  not  be  confounded  in 
aeternum.     "Confisus  non  ero  confusus." 

Towards  the  end  of  1883  he  had  been  much  pulled 
down  in  health,  and  in  January,  1884,  he  went  for  a  short 
tour  in  Dovedale  with  his  old  friends  Bishop  Lightfoot  and 
Professor  Westcott.  He  seriously  needed  rest,  which  a  bad 
cold  seemed  to  give  him,  for  he  wrote  to  his  wife : — 

Iz.  Walton,  Ashbourne. 
2d>th  Jan.  1884. 

I  have  not  a  single  intellect,  not  pulse  or  stir.  My  cold  has 
lulled  all  my  faculties  to  rest,  even  to  my  taste  and  smell  which 
are  perfectly  blank,  and  I  feel  sure  the  cogitative  membrane  of  my 
brain  (you  of  course  know  what  that  is)  is  in  exactly  the  same 
state.  I  have  no  ideas  except  what  Dr  Westcott  communicates 
and  they  remain  with  me  for  from  12  to  15  minutes,  then  sink  into 
a  copper  coloured  glow  and  presently  die  out. 

He  writes  in  his  Diary  : — 

/ati.  25,  1884.  Life  of  Anselm.  Hook  good  in  describing 
him  as  one  who  always  thought  himself  an  "  exceptional  man." 
And  this  is  the  ground  of  all  ill-doing.  Surely  never  were  greater 
losses  borne  in  a  moment  than  the  Church  suffered  when  William 
and  Lanfranc  were  replaced  by  Rufus  and  Anselm. 

Jan.  315/.  A  fine  walk  to  Tower  End  and  back  over  the 
ridges  of  Brewster,  where,  after  scorning  Lightfoot  for  throwing 
down  one  or  two  big  stones,  I  threw  down  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  of  wall  in  crossing  it. 

We  both  held  much  talk  with  Durham,  endeavouring  to  con- 
vince him  that  he  is  a  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  England  as  well  as 
of  the  Church  of  Durham,  and  is  bound  to  bring  his  powers  to 


i884  ALL   HALLOWS,    BARKING  19 

bear  on  the  House  of  Lords  and  to  give  annually  some  weeks  to 
London. 

Feb.  \st.  A  finely  executed  work  of  Chantrey  in  a  Mausoleum. 
A  Mr  Watts  vigorously  dying  on  a  sofa  lifted  up  on  a  high  step  so 
as  to  pose  the  little  children  well  without  hindering  the  view  of 
him.  Conventionalities  seem  necessaries  while  they  last,  and 
absurdities  when   they  are  gone. 

(To-day)  my  father  died,  in  1842.  He  must  have  been  a  most 
remarkable  person.  His  looks,  talk,  love  of  truth,  energy,  dili- 
gence, intefisity  about  natural  things,  religiousness,  delicacy  of 
health,  and  enjoyment  are  as  vivid  and  perfect  to  me  as  those  of 
anyone  I  now  know  and  live  with,  and  my  mother's  force  and 
beautiful  profile  and  ruling  power  are  equally  clear,  but  I  had 
many  more  years  with  her. 

-Fed.  3.  Westcott's  great  theme  at  present  is  the  unity  of  the 
race,  and  the  astonishment  with  which  they  who  little  think  it, 
rich  and  intellectual  and  independent,  will  awake  to  find  them- 
selves so  closely  united  in  life  and  future  lot  with  those  whom 
they  never  saw  nor  heard  of,  and  would  only  have  contemned  if 
they  had. 

At  this  time  my  father  offered  the  vacant  living  of  All 
Hallows,  Barking,  in  Trinity  Square,  to  his  friend  and 
Chaplain,  Arthur  J.  Mason\  The  Church,  in  which  Laud's 
remains  had  been  placed,  stands  close  to  the  Tower.  Canon 
Mason,  as  Missioner  of  the  Truro  Diocese,  had,  with  the  Rev. 
F.  E.  Carter  and  one  or  two  others,  carried  on  the  work  there 
in  a  conventual  or  semi-conventual  form ;  and  the  Arch- 
bishop was  very  anxious  that  the  large  endowment  of  All 
Hallows  should  be  utilised  for  work  of  a  similar  description, 
though  on  lines  that  were  to  be  distinctly  "secular"  and 
collegiate.  He  was  very  reluctant  to  detach  Mr  Mason  from 
Cornwall ;  but  after  waiting  for  several  months,  and  making 
many  enquiries,  he  felt  it  right  to  make  the  offer.  Under  his 
urgent  persuasion,  Mr  Mason  undertook  the  task  :  he  took 
two  houses  in  Trinity  Square,  fitted  them  up,  and  formed  a 

1  Canon  of  Canterbury  and  since  1895  Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity 
at  Cambridge. 


20  A   COLLEGIATE   CHURCH  aet.  54 

College  of  studious  priests  to  serve  the  stately  Church  and 

to  take  Mission  work.    Canon  Mason  was  one  whose  nature, 

tastes  and  even  prejudices  made  him  singularly  congenial 

to  my  father,  and  my  father  loved  him  more  as  a  son  than 

a  friend.     I  do  not  know  anyone  in  whose  company  my 

father   expanded    so   easily   and    sweetly  as  he  did  with 

Canon  Mason.     He  brought  out  for  him  his  curious  and 

quaint  stores  of  Mediaeval  knowledge,  in  exquisite  allusions 

to  fact  and  legend,  sure  as  he  was  of  the  sympathy  and 

charmed  by  the  courtesy  of  his  hearer. 

I  anticipate  somewhat  to  give  a  letter  he  wrote  on  the 

development  of  the  work  at  All  Hallows  nearly  two  years 

later  to  Canon  Mason,  who  had  then  found  by  experience, 

what  he  at  first  anticipated,  that  the  Archbishop's  original 

scheme  for  the  College  required  modification  in  one  of  two 

ways — either  by  appealing  more  directly  to  the  instinct  of 

self-sacrifice,   or   by   frankly   offering   men    a   fairly  good 

income,  at  the  cost  of  reducing  the  contemplated  numbers 

of  the  College. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

2ist  Decernber,  1885. 

I  have  indeed  given  many  anxious  considerings  to  what  you 
left  for  me  to  reflect  upon.  I  have  tried  to  see  the  questions 
in  every  possible  light — for  the  Church,  and  for  you,  and  for 
them — and  have  opened  the  shutters  of  my  darkness  to  the  light 
of  heaven  as  best  I  could. 

I  feel  utterly  with  you  that  there  should  be  communities  of 
poor  men  living  like  poor  men  among  poor  men.  But  very 
different  persons  from  you  could  carry  these  forward  and  through ; 
homely  persons,  without  gifts  for  scholarship  and  for  preaching, 
would  work  them  even  better  than  you  could. 

But  you  have  yourself  gifts,  rich  gifts,  strong  gifts,  which 
demand  in  tiomine  Dottmii  another  and  fuller  and  wider  and 
deeper  exercise.  Gifts  which  to  work  out  demands  a  stronger 
self  denial.  These  gifts  I  solemnly  feel  you  are  called  to  turn  to 
greater  account  than  you  have  yet  been  able  to  do. 

The  humble  community  of  poor  men  God  will  call  into  exist- 


[i88s]  SECULAR   CLERGY  21 

ence,  not  by  the  burial  of  such  gifts  as  yours,  but  in  His  own  time 
through  the  right  men,  not  through  the  wrong  men. 

The  small  charge  of  All  Hallows  sufficing  to  keep  the  pastoral 
heart  warm,  with  its  income  and  its  leisure  it  ought  to  be  turned 
to  the  account  which  is  its  own.  The  collegiate  church  is  still 
that  for  which  the  gifts  you  have,  and  the  opportunity  at  your 
disposal  do,  in  my  judgment,  bid  you  work.  I  do  agree  that  you 
ought  to  associate  with  yourself  in  it  men  of  more  experience  and 
higher  culture.  It  probably  is  necessary  to  give  them  ^300  a 
year  and  their  rooms.  I  quite  think  that  f/iis  change  is  necessary 
to  develope  the  Collegiate  Church.  Young  men  might  with  great 
advantage  be  allowed  to  come  for  training  as  Commensales,  and 
to  pay  for  their  training.  But  your  four  or  three  Canons  should 
be  men  of  your  own  stamp  who  would  learn  with  you  and  of  you, 
and  as  Scholars  and  Preachers  you  ought  to  work ;  oh !  how 
crying  the  need  is,  more  crying  than  that  of  the  poor,  for  men  who 
really  can  affect  the  upper,  educated,  and  nearly  educated  classes ! 
They  are  the  really  destitute  spiritually.  I  see  it  with  amazement 
and  horror  deepening  before  me. 

I  am  sure  it  would  be  wrong  for  you  to  go  and  place  yourself 
in  the  position  of  the  mendicant  and  quasi-mendicant.  Every- 
thing in  your  past  and  present  calls  on  you  to  exercise  self- 
denyingly,  and  without  hankering  for  a  more  retired  lot,  those 
highest  gifts.  We  are  on  our  trial  as  to  whether  our  men  who 
can,  choose  to  use  or  not  to  use,  what  it  is  painful  to  flesh  and 
blood  to  use,  far  more  painful  than  living  in  an  order  of  service 
and  emaciation.  Your  wish  is  to  wake  up  the  people  who  can  do 
nothing  else  to  go  and  do  that.  The  good  you  may  do  if  you 
choose  is  incalculable,  what  you  may  throw  away  is  incalculable, 
and  all  in  the  name  of  religion. 

Surely  the  men  whose  names  are  before  the  world  now  as 
preachers,  have  forced  themselves  into  their  position  by  fanatical 
views,  not  by  comprehensive  thought  or  knowledge  or  wisdom. 
"  Mediocrity  in  extremis  "  is  their  ticket.  You  must  get  wise  and 
wide  and  affect  us  in  the  great  ways  that  told  on  men  in  the  past. 
And  you  must  associate  with  yourself  such  men  to  work  out  great 
matters  with  you. 

I  don't  know  now,  and  no  one  knows,  which  way  to  look  for 
the  governors  and  guides  of  the  English  Church,  for  men  who  can 
express  what  knowledge  brings  them  to.  There  is  wisdom  un- 
eloquent   and   there   is   eloquent   rabies.     We   want   a   different 


22  LORD   SHAFTESBURY  aet.  54 

combination  and  men  to  be  brought  up  to  it.    And  you  can  do  it, 

and  can  call  men  to  your  side  who  understand  it,  but  are  losing 

their  gifts  among  so  many  bushels,  and  not  merely  hiding  their 

lights  under  them.     I  need  say  no  more,  Agapit.     Agapit,  I  am 

quite  clear. 

Your  most  loving, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  Feb.  9th,  1884,  he  writes  : — 

Went  with  Minnie  to  Winchester  to  keep  the  commemo- 
ration of  our  Martin's  death.  His  grave  is  in  the  sweetest  spot 
in  England,  the  most  sacred  and  the  one  which  he  loved  best. 
A  beautiful  cross  of  flowers  was  on  it  before  we  took  ours 
there.  We  prayed  out  of  his  Prayer-book,  his  own  wonderful 
little  group  of  prayers.  Went  to  Evensong  at  the  Cathedral,  and 
sat  by  William  of  Wykeham's  tomb  as  he  loved  to  do. 

Feb.  10th.  Have  lost  great  time  since  July  last  with  poorliness 
and  feeling  unequal  to  work,  besides  actual  illness.  But  must  not 
shrink  from  London  and  its  harrying  ways.  We  go  up  on  Tuesday. 
Fowler  a  delightful  Secretary  and  as  tender  as  a  son. 

On  the  6th  of  March  he  attended  a  banquet  given  in 
honour  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  who  had  just  received  the 
freedom  of  the  City  of  London,  at  the  Mansion  House. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  gave  a  long  and  earnest  address,  and 
the  Archbishop  responded  to  the  toast  of  the  Clergy. 
Lord  Shaftesbury,  he  said,  had  determined  in  his  Harrow 
days  "  to  dedicate  his  life  to  remedying  the  irremediable 
and  healing  the  unavoidable,  to  untwisting  the  knots  and 
meshes  of  insoluble  problems  about  things  which  men 
said  '  could  not  be  helped,' — a  doctrine  which  was  common 
many  years  ago." 

Some  irritation  was  expressed  by  certain  scrupulous 
High  Churchmen  that  the  Archbishop  should  attend  such  a 
banquet  during  Lent.  If  his  critics  had  realised  how  in- 
tensely unpleasurable  his  anticipations  of  such  festivities 
were,  they  could  hardly  have  maintained  that  the  interests 
of  the  soul  were  sacrificed  to  the  pleasures  of  the  body  in 
such  a  case. 


i884  THE   LIBERATIONISTS  23 

To  Ca?ion  Mason. 

Lambeth  Palace. 

10  March,  1884. 

I  am  told  that  Carvell  Williams  ^  lecturing  in  Cornwall  states 
that  Bishop  Benson  said,  before  or  on  going  there,  "that  he 
was  coming  to  lessen  Nonconformity" — and  that  this  declaration 
of  Bishop  Benson's  has  acted  to  quicken  the  Liberation  Cause  and 
promote  dissent. 

But  if  he  does  make  that  statement,  and  someone  told  me  he 
saw  it  in  the  Echo  on  Friday  and  I  think  I  have  heard  of  it  before, 
might  it  be  well  for  you  to  ascertain  what  he  said  exactly — and  to 
absolutely  contradict  his  assertion,  or  the  newspaper  account  of 
his  assertion.  I  never  did  say  anything  which  might  even  be 
twisted  into  it.  Mr  Bright  said  I  thought  so,  but  not  even  he  said 
I  said  so.     Perhaps  he  would  say  when,  where. 

And  if  the  result  of  my  working  there  was  so  to  strengthen 
and  amalgamate  Nonconformity  into  Liberationism,  why  does 
Mr  C.  W.  throw  such  energy  into  Cornwall?  I  should  have 
thought  he  was  not  wanted. 

On  the  2 1  St  of  March,  while  Mr  Willis's  resolution 
was  being  debated  in  the  Commons,  the  Archbishop  spoke 
in  the  House  of  Lords  against  the  opening  of  Museums 
on  Sundays,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  entail  increased 
amount  of  labour  for  the  custodians  and  attendants,  and 
lead  to  a  considerable  augmentation  of  traffic  and  trade, 
while  it  was  by  no  means  certain  that  the  class  intended  to 
be  benefited  by  the  motion  would  avail  themselves  of  it. 
This  was  the  ground  that  he  always  maintained  ;  saying 
also  strongly  that  it  was  "an  entire  mistake  to  imagine 
that  the  clergy  were  ready  to  sacrifice  the  social  good  of 
the  people  to  religion." 


^  Secretary  of  the  Liberation  Society  ;  now  M.P.  for  the  Mansfield  Division 
of  Notts. 


24  DEATH   OF   PRINCE   LEOPOLD  aet.  54 


To  Professor   Westcott. 

Lambeth  Palace. 
March  i^th,  1884. 

...I  feel  very  strongly  what  you  say  as  to  the  abeyance  of 
the  Church  as  a  power  spiritual.  The  very  streets  of  London, 
and  the  meanness  of  all,  rich  and  poor,  in  them  seem  to  negative 
the  very  consideration  of  such  a  thing.  The  Church  seems  to 
most  men  like  any  other  business — well  managed  or  ill  managed — 
the  managers  to  be  envied  or  contemned  or  accepted  as  managers, 
anything  above  "  nature  "  not  to  be  named.  Then  comes  Sunday 
and  suddenly  all  is  so  changed.  It  seems  the  last  witness.  And 
yet  little  more  than  a  witness.  I  know  the  fault  is  ours.  But  how 
are  we  to  get  out  of  it  ?. . . 

He  suffered  a  good  deal  at  this  time  from  a  feeling  of 
bodily  prostration  and  mental  depression  :  he  writes  on 
March  29th  on  hearing  of  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Albany : — 

All  houses  in  sudden  grief  at  the  loss  of  the  pure-hearted, 
and  true-aiming  and  cultivated  Leopold.  The  Queen,  whom  we 
shall  see  in  public  no  more,  and  the  Duchess  who,  at  the  child's 
christening,  looked  so  one  with  him  in  heart  and  simple  devout- 
ness,  are  in  all  hearts. 

A  very  large  Confirmation  in  Croydon  Parish  Church  to-day, 
and  afterwards  I  opened  the  school  for  700  children,  built  since 
October  at  a  cost  of  j[^\ooo,  very  fine.  Can't  recover  vigour, 
voice  or  spirit.     Was  truly  feeble. 

The  Spectator  still  goes  on  "with  slight  attacks." 

I  do  not  agree  that  the  Church's  work  is  to  be  done  by  my 
sketching  grand  programmes  for  her  in  pubHc.  There  are  better 
and  stronger  ways  than  that. 

Rearranged  portraits  in  Guard-room  chronologically — added 
Longley  to  it. 

Anniversary  of  Enthronement.     Deus  misereatur. 

He  was  present  at  the  funeral  of  the  Duke  of  Albany 
and  writes : — 

April  ^fh.     I  think  the  most  beautiful  ceremonial  I  have  ever 


» 


i884  LETTER  TO   THE   QUEEN  25 

seen.  The  sense  of  the  change  for  hi7n  from  so  much  da-Oeveia ' 
which  he  felt  so  grievously.  A  thoughtful  princely  self-denial 
about  him  where  many  would  have  found  nothing  but  self-excuse. 

T/ie  Archbishop  to  the  Queen. 

Lambeth  Palace. 

4  April,  1884. 
Madam, 

May  I  venture  now  that  this  day  with  its  special  griefs 
and  its  special  grace  is  over,  to  thank  Your  Majesty  for  a  letter 
which  makes  me  feel  with  deep  thankfulness  how,  along  with 
sorrow  upon  sorrow,  God  is  sending  yet  more  fully  strength  upon 
strength. 

We  can  see  Him  enabling  Your  Majesty  to  encounter  and  at 
least  "through  a  glass"  to  understand  that  Struggle  and  Mystery 
of  Life  of  which  you  speak  so  truly  and  so  touchingly.  And  the 
people's  heart  which  feels  this  is  drawn  to  God  meanwhile. 

I  have  just  read  a  stirring  sentence  in  a  letter  of  Mr  Maurice's. 
"I  am  grieved  that  you  should  be  called  back  to  the  work  of 
suffering — high  and  honourable  work  as  it  is — when  you  were 
looking  forward  to  action." 

What  Your  Majesty  says  of  the  Duchess  makes  me  feel  that 
for  her  for  the  present  He  is  marvellously  substituting  one  work 
for  another. 

She  is  even  now  able  to  make  her  own  suffering  help  the  weak- 
ness of  thousands,  of  whom  she  never  thought,  to  be  strength — 
and  who  would  have  thought  her  the  last  person  in  the  world  to 
have  any  relation  to  their  own  crushing  griefs. 

Such  confidence  in  the  lofty  and  bright  and  loving  side  of  His 
action,  and  the  insight  which  we  are  sure  of  to-day,  is  a  blessing 
of  blessings  to  the  most  tried  and  afflicted  and  dest  people. 

The  very  looks  of  the  poor  working  folk  in  the  streets  to-day 
showed  that  this  has  not  fallen  "in  vain" — and  if  it  is  consolation 
to  be  sure  of  this  already,  how  much  fruit  of  it  is  stored  in  the 
great  future. 

Your  Majesty's 

Most  faithful  and  devoted  subject  and  servant, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

1  Weakness. 


26  OXFORD    D.C.L.    DEGREE  aet.  54 

On  the  8th  of  April  he  writes  of  a  sermon  he  had  heard 
that  day  : — 

Strange  that  so  fine  an  orator  as   B with  all  the    Irish 

fervour,  that  kindles  even  commonplace  passages,  and  glows  at  a 
white  heat  in  the  best,  should  be  unable  to  be  free  from  the 
native  confusion.  He  described  himself  as  in  danger  of  being 
wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Africa  by  wind  dashing  the  boat  on  the 
headland,  after  having  instantly  before  described  the  storm  as 
gathered  on  the  mountain  range  and  the  "breezes"  sweeping 
wildly  down  the  gullies  on  to  the  sea. 

On  April  loth: — 

At  the  distribution  of  the  Maundy  at  Whitehall  Chapel  with 
the  wife  and  children.  It  may  be  the  last  ceremonial,  for  the 
Treasury  suggests  that  the  "fourpenny  bits  want  reconsideration." 

It  was  a  rather  startling  ceremonial  with  the  beef-eater  walking 
with  the  great  salver  on  his  head,  and  the  strings  of  all  the  purses 
hanging  below  his  beard  like  a  fringe.  The  four  anthems  were 
beautiful.  It  might  easily  be  made  more  religious  by  a  little 
explanation — but  this  is  how  forms  become  "  mere  forms  " — the 
laziness  of  men  in  pointing  morals. 

On  the  evening  of  Good  Friday,  he  says : — 

April  nth.  Good  Friday.  Litany  early  in  Chapel  and  then 
a  peaceful  Matins  and  Ante-Communion  there  with  family  only. 
I   to  4,  at  St  Paul's,  attended  a  three-hour  service.     And  then 

Vespers.      A very  fine  in  language  and  intellectually,    but 

though  on  the  emotional  ground  he  awoke  no  emotion.  It 
is  due  slightly  to  his  taking  the  "thoughtful"  view  and  then 
exaggerating  a  little  out  of  his  fancy.  He  has  not  lived  that 
which  he  describes  so  well— as  to  sorrow,  as  to  death,  as  to 
suffered  wrong. 

On  the  23rd  he  paid  a  visit  to  Oxford,  where  he  received 
the  degree  of  D.C.L.,  and  writes  : — 

April  22,rd.  A  most  kind  and  warm  reception  at  "our" 
College  of  All  Souls ;  a  large  party  of  "  quondams  "  and  present 
Fellows.  Sir  William  Anson  a  Church-Liberal  of  delightful  type. 
The  Song  of  the  Mallard  was  sung  ''for  the  first  time  in  the 
presence  of  the  Visitor "  in  the  Common  Room  (by  Lane,  late 


i884  ACADEMY   BANQUET  27 

Lord  Mallard^).  Cholmondeley,  Buchanan,  Buckle  (Editor  of 
Times),  Lord  Devon,  G.  Lushington,  Milman.  Having  studied 
Burrows'  Worthies  of  All  Souls,  was  fairly  at  home.  Warden 
made  Latin  address  before  dinner,  to  which  I  had  to  reply  Latine, 
in  the  Common  Room.  There  was  a  very  fine  strong  feeling  of 
family  friendship  here,  which  floated  about  like  a  summer  air. 

One  who  was  present  on  the  occasion  of  the  degree 
being  conferred  says  "  I  never  saw  the  Archbishop  look 
more  vigorous  or  stately  than  when  he  came  in,  very 
upright,  in  the  scarlet  Doctor's  gown.  Another  recipient 
of  the  degree  walked  by  him,  old  and  bent.  The  Arch- 
bishop smiled  goodhumouredly  at  the  remarks  which 
greeted  him,  and  turned  with  great  courtesy  and  deference 
to  help  the  older  Doctor  up  the  steps." 

April  25.  Early  celebrated  at  Choral  Communion  at  Keble, 
— and  after,  "  High  Matins."  The  Chapel  is  very  stately  as  to  its 
roof,  and  the  bold  division  of  the  wall  spaces.  But  the  dowdy 
ineffectiveness  of  its  windows  and  prosaic  colouring  is  sad.  It 
is  not  brightness  but  glow  which  is  so  essential  and  so  wanting 
here.  Not  height  of  colour  but  jewelled-ness.  All  the  materials 
of  those  ancient  effects  are  used,  but  there  is  no  felicity  in 
composing  them. 

On  the  27th  of  April  he  writes : — 

Happy  working  hard  early  at  St  Peter,  L  Chapter. 

Holy  Communion.  But  much  self-inflicted  gloom.  How 
difficult  to  realise  what  is  moral  and  what  is  physical.  A  talk 
with  the  children  about  God  and  loving  Him  could  not  bring  me 
back. 

On  May  3rd  he  attended  the  Academy  banquet,  and  in 
returning  thanks  for  the  guests  made  a  speech,  for  him 
very  impassioned,  on  the  functions  of  Art.  He  said  in  the 
course  of  his  speech. 

Every  picture  of  nature  and  life  upon  which  the  eye  rests  with 
pleasure  shows  us  nature  and  life  either  as  having  lost  something 
or  as  losing  something,  and  in  that  lies  the  pathos  of  Art ;  or  else 

1  The  Venerable  Ernald  Lane,  since  i888  Archdeacon  of  Stoke-on-Trent. 


28  SUGGESTIONS   FOR   SPEECHES  aet.  54 

it  shows  us  life  and  nature  gaining  and  stirring  towards  some 
great  end,  however  blindly,  and  in  that  lies  the  great  joyfulness 
of  Art. ...  I  would  not  venture  to  tread  on  ground  where  angels 
might  fear  to  criticise :  but  I  can  assure  the  President  that  whether 
we  see  upon  these  walls  clouded  skies  or  the  clear  shining  after 
rain,  animal  life  appealing  to  our  sympathy  or  commanding  our 
admiration,  man  in  the  wonders  and  mystery  of  suffering  or  in 
the  still  more  wonderful  mystery  of  rejoicing  and  mirth — in  these 
and  in  other  subjects  we  recognise  that  artists  are  subtle  and 
mighty  interpreters  to  us. 

It  is  curious  to  me  to  note  one  thing  in  this  speech ; 
on  the  eve  of  an  important  address  my  father  often  used 
to  ask  us,  while  bew^ailing  humorously  his  lack  of  time  to 
prepare  the  speech,  for  some  ideas  or  quotations, — "sense" 
as  he  called  it, — from  the  old  Eton  phrase.  "  What  am  I 
to  speak  to  them  about?"  he  would  say,  looking  round, 
or  later,  with  vexation,  "  You  haven't  given  me  any  ideas. 
I  vmst  have  some  !  "  On  this  particular  occasion,  someone 
quoted  the  line  of  R.  Browning,  "We  love  things  first, 
first  when  we  see  them  painted."  It  was  interesting  to  see 
how  such  fragmentary  suggestions  often  came  into  his 
speech  afterwards  transmuted  and  embedded  in  appropriate 
eloquence.  This  line  he  quoted  with  great  effect,  coupled 
with  a  majestic  compliment  to  Mr  Browning. 

I  may  mention  here  another  instance ;  he  had  to  give 
some  educational  address,  and  consulted  us  at  tea-time  on 
the  very  evening  it  was  to  be  delivered.  Someone  hazarded, 
from  a  book  of  nonsense  verses ; 

"  But  what  a  tongue,  and  oh  what  brains 

Were  in  that  Parrot's  head  ; 
It  took  two  men  to  understand 
One  half  the  things  it  said," 

which  he  introduced  into  his  address,  pointing  with  it  an 
interesting  passage  on  the  futility  and  pedantry  of  un- 
intelligent accomplishments. 


i884  DRUDGERY  29 

He  writes  in  his  Diary  : — 

May  3.  Elected  at  Grillions  Club.  R.  Browning  introduced 
himself  to  me  because  I  had  quoted  him  in  my  speech.  He  looks 
strangely  to  me,  if  he  does  really  live  his  poems. 

June  13.  My  mother's  birthday.  She  would  have  been,  I 
wonder  whether  in  wiser  lands  she  is,  pleased  with  her  son's 
present  work.     God  grant  it. 

June  16.  Maurice's  life  a  ceaseless  reproach  to  the  unthought- 
fulness  of  this  busy  existence.  It  is  very  clear  how  our  life  like 
the  life  of  the  busy  old  Jewish  priests  may  become  ILx^P^'^^  i^^  '^o 
time — and  be  ready  ets  KaraKava-iv^.  The  first  year  of  my  Archi- 
episcopate,  when  everything  within  and  without,  crowded  business, 
details,  talk,  grind,  meetings,  interviews,  letters,  without  stop  or 
stay,  from  early  till  past  midnight ;  I  thought  I  would  acquiesce 
in  it  as  God's  will,  and  trust  Him  to  feed  me  spiritually  in  the 
midst  of  this  current.  But  He  did  not,  and  will  not,  and  I 
thank  Him.  Little  as  I  have  lately  got  of  separate  moments, 
it  is  a  great  blessing,  and  it  is  clear  that  to  get  it  is  one's  true 
work — and  to  refuse  false  work. 

To  Bishop    Wordsworth,  of  Lincoln. 

{Unaiiimity  of  Bishops.) 

Lambeth  Palace. 

28  fune,  1884. 

My  dearest  Lord  Brother, 

I  think  it  wall  be  well  that  you  should  propose  in  a 
private  conversation  with  the  Bishops  what  you  propose  to  me. 
They  I  think  should  determine  whether  there  should  be  public 
discussion  among  them. 

All  has  proceeded  hitherto  on  the  theory  that  there  would  be 
such  discussion. 

The  Bishops  are  looked  to  as  Rulers  and  Guides.  If  on  a 
critical  emergency  they  oifer  no  guidance  there  will  be  disappoint- 
ment and  loss  of  confidence. 

I  am  afraid  Bishops  never  have  been  all  unanimous.  But 
ought  I  to  say  "afraid,"  when  the  only  instance  which  occurs  to 

^  Chaff,  for  the  burning.     Luke  iii.  17. 


30 


THE   FRANCHISE   BILL  aet.  54 


my  inscience    is  the  disastrous   agreement   of  87    at  the  Vllth 
Council  of  Carthage  under  the  influence  of  Cyprian. 

Ever  your  loving  child, 

E.  W.  C. 

We  hope  that  Mrs  Wordsworth  is  better  and  you  happier 
about  her.  ^Vhat  lovely  pieces  of  Michael  Angelo  you  have  given 
us.     The  Tudor  age  of  women  ought  certainly  now  to  return. 

On  the  8th  of  July  the  Archbishop  spoke  strongly  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Franchise  Bill.  It  is  commonly 
said  that  on  this  occasion  he  implored  the  House  in  dealing 
with  this  measure  to  "  trust  the  people."  This  is  however 
more  a  summary  of  what  he  said  than  an  actual  quotation. 
He  said  that  he  trusted  the  good  sense  of  the  country,  and 
that  the  good  sense  of  the  country  had  brought  them  on- 
ward to  where  they  stood  at  that  moment.  He  said  later 
in  his  speech,  "The  Church  trusted  the  people.  How 
could  they  refrain  from  desiring  to  elevate  the  people  by 
giving  to  them  that  principle  of  independence  upon  which 
so  much  of  progress  depended^?" 

On  the  nth  of  July  he  dined  with  the  Queen.  He 
writes : — 

July  wth.  At  dinner  the  Queen  asked  me  about  the  Bishops 
voting  for  the  Franchise  Bill.  I  told  her  that  the  Bishops  of 
to-day  were  not  like  the  Bishops  of  fifty  years  ago  or  fifty- 
five.  Then  they  did  such  governing  as  they  did  through 
the  superior  clergy  or  by  missives.  Now  meetings,  lectures, 
temperance  gatherings,  constant  openings  of  mission  rooms  and 
churches,  above  all  schools,  familiarise  them  with  the  people 
as  well  as  the  people  with  them.  They  have  all  this  time  been 
teaching  them,  going  in  and  out  among  them,  addressing  them, 
educating  and  elevating  them  in  every  way.  It  is  not  likely  that 
now  when  all  sides  agree  that  the  people  can  use  the  Franchise 
properly,  the  bishops  should  be  found  against  their  own  flocks 
and  unwilling  to  trust  them, — and  this  accounts  for  the  almost 
perfect  unanimity  of  the  bishops  on  this  subject. 

^  The  two  Archbishops  and  ten  Bishops  supported  the  Bill  ;  one  Bishop 
opposed  it. 


1884  ILLNESS   OF   BISHOP   WORDSWORTH  31 

On  the  24th  he  had  a  reception,  originated  by  Arch- 
bishop Tait,  of  some  of  the  poor  and  invaHd  from  Lambeth 
Parish.  This  as  has  been  said  was  an  annual  engagement 
and  he  had  always  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  it.  The  "garden- 
party  "  and  tea  were  followed  by  a  short  service  and 
nothing  hindered  him  from  taking  this  service  himself;  he 
chose  the  lessons,  commenting  on  them  as  he  read  ; 
carefully  chose  the  hymns  and  gave  always  a  brief  and 
simple  address. 

July  24M.  Had  a  party  of  ninety-nine  poor  and  halt  and 
blind.  Their  manners  and  tone  as  they  approach  the  grave 
become  so  sweet  and  considerate,  whatever  their  rank.  If  blind- 
ness and  lameness  and  deafness  are  '■'■limitations''''  truly  con- 
sidered, under  which  God  makes  many  souls  do  their  work — 
and  it  is  well  done — how  strange  it  seems  that  when  we 
approach  our  goal  every  single  soul  is  subject  to  so  many  and 
so  irksome  "  limitations "  !  We  cannot  be  perfected  except  by 
suffering. 

On  the  29th  July  he  had  an  interview  with  the  Crown 
Prince  Frederick  of  Germany  :  he  writes  : — 

July  2()th.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Germany  called — was  very 
kind — recalled  the  several  interviews  I  have  had  with  him  with 
dates!  These  royal  memories  are  absolutely  sui  generis.  "The 
moment  I  heard  you  were  Archbishop  I  said,  I  am  certain  it  is 
the  man  who  dined  with  me  twenty-five  years  ago  at  Babelsberg!" 
He  is  a  very  kingly  sort  of  person. 

The  Archbishop  was  much  troubled  at  this  time  by 
the  illness  of  his  old  and  dear  friend  Bishop  Wordsworth 
of  Lincoln  :  he  says : — 

August  I  St.  Better  news  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  whose 
condition  through  the  week  has  been  very  alarming.  The  world 
and  the  Church  to  me  without  his  fatherly  love  to  me,  his  magni- 
ficent generosities  and  his  impracticable  opinions,  backed  by 
absolute  learning,  would  be  much  grayer  and  dimmer  regions  to 
live  in.  He  has  daily  asked  "  Doctor,  am  I  any  better  ? "  If 
the  Doctor  is  cheerful,  he  says  "Thank  God"— if  not,  "God's 


32  CONFIRMATION   AT   OSBORNE  aet.  55 

will  be  done."  "And  now  may  I  see  Mrs  Wordsworth?"  Her 
condition  is  one  of  great  anxiety  too.  However,  Paget  is  hopeful 
of  him. 

On  the  5th  of  August  he  went  to  Osborne  to  confirm 
the  Princess  Louise  of  Wales.     He  says  : — 

August  t^th,  Osborne.  Reached  Osborne  easily  and  quietly, 
reading  a  good  deal  by  the  way.  A  noble  walk  among  trees  by 
the  sea  with  the  Dean  of  Windsor. 

The  little  Princess  very  anxious,  I  hear,  about  her  Confirmation 
— may  God  guide  her  anxiousness  into  simple  resolution.  My 
room  here  intensely  quiet  and  deliciously  cool.  My  dear  old 
predecessor  sitting  quiet,  watching,  in  the  corner;  an  excellent 
copy  of  the  Lambeth  picture^and  the  Two  Foscari  behind  me. 
Dined  very  quietly  with  the   Queen. 

He  was  now  living  quietly  at  Addington ;  he  thus 
records  a  Sunday  afternoon  there: — 

August  10th.  Maggie,  Fred,  Hugh  and  I  went  out  in  the 
shade  and  wandered  and  sat  while  Nellie  and  Mother  had  their 
classes.  Hugh  read  the  "  Life  of  Paul  the  Hermit "  aloud  from 
Kingsley,  and  we  concluded  that  if  it  was  right,  and  necessary 
for  the  weal  of  Christianity,  that  such  an  awful  enterprise  as  the 
desert  life  should  be  entered  on,  in  such  an  age  of  Sin  and 
Delight  as  the  Alexandrian  life  exhibited,  then  we  had  every 
right  to  expect  birds  to  fetch  us  bread  and  lions  to  dig  our 
grave.  That  being  settled  we  discussed  what  was  meant  by 
"getting  one's  own  living"  if  one  was  rich  in  estates  already, 
and  concluded  that  ap;^ato7rXour€ia '  meant  nothing  but  that  God 
paid  us  our  wages  direct,  and  began  by  anticipation,  so  that  our 
station  and  duty  had  to  be  much  more  rigorously  consulted  and 
lived  up  to  than  in  any  other  case.  We  terrified  ourselves  also 
by  the  memoirs  of  the  Hermit  Crab  and  the  Sacculina,  as  ex- 
hibiting how  frightfully  we  get  punished,  if  we  dare  to  live 
without  working,  in  body  and  spirit,  and  that  Degeneracy  is  an 
almost  intolerable  vengeance  on  Degeneration ^  Then  Fred  read 
Stanley's  account  of  Jerusalem  as  it  was  and  is,  but  alas  by  this 
time  I  fell  asleep  under  a  tree  and  did  not  hear  all. 

1  Ancestral  wealth. 

^  With  reference  to  Drummond's  Natural  Law  in  the  Spintual  World. 


1884  LIFE  AT  ADDINGTON  33 

Tea  under  the  Cedar,  and  a  strain  or  two  of  George  Herbert. 
The  London  fatigue  seems  passing  off  in  this  sweet  holiday. 

His  Diary  is  full  of  quiet  enjoyment  of  the  country 
life  at  Addington.     He  writes  : — 

August  12,  Addington.  This  morning  the  children  kept  me 
to  Virgil  for  more  than  two  hours  I  believe.  This  evening  a 
delightful  ride  with  three  of  them  across  Selsdon  Park  and  up 
to  Warlingham  and  round.  Full  of  delightful  mishaps  which 
surprise  and  exercise  the  temper  and  strengthen  it  so  beauti- 
fully. To  see  a  boy  whip  in  hand,  walking  after  his  horse, 
looking  bland  and  coaxing,  having  let  him  give  him  the  slip  at 
a  heavy  gate, — to  find  a  stone  in  your  shoe,  etc.,  and  help  them 
all  to  know  what  to  do,  is  one  of  the  chiefest  pleasures,  and  by 
them  never  forgot  in  the  years  of  Methuselah. 

August  13.  Except  among  the  Addington  villagers  themselves, 
who  are  the  sweetest,  friendliest  people,  there  is  no  trace  of  kindly 
or  respectful  salutations  among  the  Kent  and  Surrey  villagers. 
Hardly  will  they  give  a  growl  if  one  wishes  them  "  good-night " 
first ;  most  pass  on  mum  and  sulky.  If  this  is  not  the  result  of 
the  general  upheaval  against  powers  above  them,  it  must  be  due 
either  to  the  general  prevalence  of  "  incomelings,"  uninterested  in 
neighbourhood  and  neighbours  and  soon  to  depart  for  other 
settlements,  or  else  to  the  increased  touring  about  of  unknown 
persons — so  that  the  people  forget  to  acknowledge  any  powers. 
But,  whatever  is  the  cause,  you  can  be  sure  of  a  friendly  greeting 
from  no  one.  It  augurs  ill  if  this  is  the  early  bud  of  the  coming 
change,  this  contempt  for  l^ova-iai '. 

As  was  always  the  case,  the  quiet  and  repose  of 
Addington  soon  brought  depression  and  melancholy  re- 
flections.    He  writes : — 

October  10th.  Our  dearest  dutifullest  Nellie's  twenty-first 
birthday.  How  can  one  help  perplexing  oneself  in  such  a 
place  as  this?  I  find  in  myself  no  fitness  for  it.  I  could  not 
resist,  I  had  no  right  to  resist.  If  calls  exist,  called  I  was ; 
against  my  will.  An  unfit  man,  not  unfit  in  his  humility  sub- 
jective, but  clearly  seeing  himself  by  God's  help  as  he  is — yet 
called.     Follows  from  that,  that  there  is  something  unknown  in 

^  Powers,  authorities. 
B.  II.  X 


34  A   DIOCESAN   MISSIONER  aet.  55 

God's  counsels  for  the  Church  and  for  His  poor  servant,  whom 
He  will  not  let  fall  to  the  ground  for  simply  nothing,  for  His  own 
love  to  the  least — something  He  means  to  have  done  by  one 
unfit  for  the  great  place.  Well  then,  he  will  be  fit  for  the  thing 
He  wants  to  have  done.  Then  make  him  fit — and  let,  O  God, 
whatever  it  be,  be  good  for  Thy  Church.     It  is  in  Thy  Hand. 

To  Cation  Ci'owfoot. 
{Appointment  of  Tait  Missio?ier.) 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
Oct.  loth,  1884. 
My  dearest  Friend, 

I  want  your  help  again  of  course — I  want  to  establish 
a  Cathedral  Mission  Preacher  at  Canterbury  like  Mason  at  Truro. 
In  memory  of  Archbishop  Tait  they  have  raised  £2>°°  ^  Y^^^ 
for  5  years  as  an  experiment.  The  Dean  and  Chapter  will  give  a 
house  when  their  leases  fall  in  shortly.  He  must  work  6  months, 
and  positively  not  work,  except  at  books  and  meditations,  6  months. 

I  should  desire  of  course  Zeal  and  Faith — in  the  means,  and 
in  the  Power  behind — a  Personal  sense  of  a  Call :  one  can't  always 
have  that  in  fulness. 

I  do  not  know  whether  wife  and  children  would  impede  him. 
I  do  not  know  why  they  should,  if  they  can  put  up  with  his 
absences.     Of  course  a  Happy  Monk  or  Friar  is  the  ideal. 

Can  you  tell  me  the  man — and  send  him  to  see  me — I  hope 
he  would  take  missions  both  in  Canterbury  Diocese  and  in 
London  from  time  to  time  in  pet  wildernesses  of  mine. 

Best  love  to  you  dear  friends  ;  the  days  are  heavy  with  the 
thought  of  Saints  Christopher  and  Susan',  Tropevofj.evoiv  avw^. 

Your  loving, 

E.  W.  Cantuar. 

To  Bishop   Wordstvorth,  of  Lincoht. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

I5//2  Oct.  1884. 
My  dearest  Lord  Brother, 

I  have  indeed  nothing  to  tell — and  there  is  nothing  I 
can  say,  which  you  do  not  only  know  tenfold  as  well  as  I,  but 

1  The  Bishop  of  Lincoln  and  Mrs  Wordsworth. 
^  Journeying  heavenwards. 


i884  DEATH    OF    MRS    WORDSWORTH  35 

there  is  nothing  I  cati  say,  which  you  do  not  live.  Vivere  Christum 
is  what  you  always  taught  us,  and  now  pati  Christum — for  surely 
it  is  He  who  so  marvellously  lays  His  Hand  with  suffering  on  you 
and  dear  Mrs  Wordsworth  at  the  same  moment.  It  has  been  such 
a  blended  life  of  love  and  work  and  holiest  joy,  that  such  a  crvt^vyia^ 
in  sorrow,  so  exactly  paralleled,  is  plainly  direct  from  His  loving 
touch.  And  you,  I  know,  are  not  unwilling,  but  wholly  resigned 
even  to  His  painful  use  of  yourselves,  that  we  may  school  and 
subdue  ourselves  with  the  thought  of  your  faith  and  patience. 
There  are  many  who  would  gladly  bear  part  of  the  TaTreivoV?;?- 
which  He  lays  on  you,  if  they  could  only  help  dearest  Mrs  Words- 
worth and  you.  And  I  do  and  will  believe  that  we  are  able  to 
help  with  prayers. 

I  am  constantly  thinking  of  that  mysterious  visit  of  yours 
to  Wellington  and  of  all  the  life  that  has  come  forth  from  it. 

Of  course  we  need  no  answer,  save  through  Susie,  just  a  word 
of  Love  and  blessing. 

Your  most  loving, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

To  Miss  S.    Wordsworth. 
{Death  of  Mrs    Wordsworth.) 

Addington  Park,  Croydon, 

Nov.  4t/i,  1884. 
Dearest  Susie, 

"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn  for  they  shall  be  com- 
forted."— This  was  the  first  sentence  of  our  prayers  on  Saturday 
morning,  and  you  know  where  it  carried  us.  At  midday  we  had 
the  Holy  Communion,  Mylne  celebrating,  in  the  church  here,  and 
pausing  long  in  the  Church  Militant  Prayer  at  the  commemoration, 
just,  I  thought,  at  the  moment  when  you  were  either  round  the 
grave  or  approaching  it  with  a  precious  burden  in  God's  sight. 
We  could  only  desire  that  the  "good  example"  should  be  ours  for 
ever.  I  hope  the  dearest  father  is  somehow  only  gathering 
strength  in  the  inner  spirit  out  of  sight  for  whatever  God  has  next 
for  him.  All  saints  on  earth  who  know  and  love  him — and  what 
thousands   there   are — are  praying  with  him  here,   while  one  is 

^  Partnership,  fellowship.  ^  Humiliation. 

3—2 


36  BISHOP    MAGEE  aet.  55 

praying  with  all  saints  in  Paradise.  When  you  can,  give  him  my 
dearest  son-like  love — and  you  are  all  sure,  I  know,  that  we  are 
with  you  in  most  brotherly  and  sisterly  heart. 

Your  ever  loving  brother, 

Edvi^.  Cantuar. 

Don't  answer,  dearest  Susie,  for  answering's  sake.  You  have 
been  so  good  in  writing  to  Minnie  and  have  given  us  more  sense 
of  unseen  strength  than  we  can  give  you.  You  have  been  and 
will  be  wonderfully  "holden  up." 

On  the  6th  of  November  he  notes: — 

Addington.  Lord  Cranbrook  and  Evelyn  Hardy,  Dean  and 
Mrs  Church  and  Miss  Church,  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  J.  Fowler' 
and  Mrs  Fowler,  William  and  Isabel  Sidgwick,  all  left  after  most 
pleasant  days  and  rides  and  walks  and  much  talk,  to  me  most 
valuable.  The  Bishop  of  Peterborough  older  and  weaker  but  as 
brilliant  and  swift  as  ever.  He  told  us  a  story  of  going  down  to 
a  party  of  men  whom  he  saw  on  the  sands  at  a  wild  sea-place 
in  Wales,  carrying  a  strange-looking  black  burden.  It  was,  he 
found,  an  old  man  alive,  wrapped  in  an  ox-skin.  The  men  were 
Mormons  going  to  sail  next  day.  The  old  man  could  not  bear 
the  voyage,  and  the  Mormons  had  told  them  that  if  they  put  him, 
thus  wrapped  up,  into  the  sea,  he  would  come  up  in  the  Salt  Lake 
at  Utah  !  When  we  had  all  been  sufficiently  horrified,  I  said  the 
ancients  thought  there  were  magic  powers  of  resuscitation  in  an 
oxhide, — Sep/xa  ravpetov.  He  said,  "  Now,  that  sounds  so  like 
Dermot  O'Ryan  that  I'm  sure  you  mean  to  be  personal — so  I'll 
say  good-night." 

Attended  Charterhouse  Meeting.  A  very  bad  fall  under  the 
gateway  where  the  Abbot  was  hanged, — very  humiliating — a 
useful  penance,  the  more  so  because  not  self-inflicted  or  chosen. 
Met  Bishop  Doane  of  Albany,  Mrs  Doane  and  Dr  Hale  of 
Baltimore,  at  London  Bridge,  and  brought  them  down  for  two 
nights.  Delightful  Americans — his  favourite  phrase  is  "lovely," 
which  he  deserves  himself  both  face  and  spirit — and  Dr  Hale  in 
spirit.  He  is  learned  in  parties,  factions,  movements,  and  all 
hopeful.  They  say  the  tone  in  the  circles  they  pass  through  in 
England  is  quite  different  from  what  it  was  ten  years  since  about 

^  The  late  Sir  John  Fowler,  Bart.,  engineer-in-chief  of  the  Forth  Bridge. 


i884  END   OF   THE   YEAR  37 

Disestablishment.     Then  it  was  "  in  the  air."     Now  it  seems  far 

more  distant.     Lord  B said  the  other  day,  that  it  was  only 

possible  if  some  sudden  parliament  of  equal  power  and  violence 
assembled,  and  that  it  would  not  be  without  bloodshed.  I  told 
Dean  of  St  Paul's  this,  who  said  it  was  "  awful  to  think  what  great 
forces  were  gathering  :  that  the  Pall  Mall  had  used  the  word 
'  bloodshed '  about  the  House  of  Lords."     So  do  men  differ. 

On  the  13th  of  November  he  attended  the  unveiling  of 
the  Tait  Memorial  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  made  a 
speech  full  of  affection  and  reverent  admiration. 

In  the  course  of  November  he  wrote  a  prayer  for  the 
English  Army  in  the  Soudan,  the  wording  of  which  was 
strongly  objected  to  by  certain  sections  of  politicians. 

The  prayer  was  not  one  of  the  Archbishop's  happiest 
efforts,  and  contained  several  remarkable  inversions  :  but  it 
was  only  the  tension  of  public  feeling  that  made  it  appear 
objectionable  :  those  of  the  public  who  objected  to  the 
whole  Expedition  were  not  likely  to  approve  a  prayer  for 
God's  blessing  upon  it. 

On  the  last  day  of  1884  he  writes  : — 

December  $isl,  Addington. — There  never  was  a  night  which 
brooded  over  the  earth  with  such  affection.  "  I  am  your  last  one," 
it  said.  It  was  warm  and  just  before  midnight  one  could  have 
seen  to  read  by  the  moonlight.  And  all  the  sky  was  filled  high 
with  the  softest  fleecy  motionless  clouds.  The  light  lay  like  a  rich 
substance  on  everything  and  broke  through  the  cedars  here  and 
there,  while  they  also  climbed  up  like  blackest  cloud  masses. 

The  Church  was  nearly  full  of  people.  There  was  a  beautiful 
short  Service  of  good  simple  words  from  Mylne.  A  brief  silence 
at  midnight  and  then  bells  full  of  hope.  It  was  a  natural  ending 
to  a  year  more  full  of  sunlight  than  any  year  I  remember,  a 
summer  in  which  one  day  was  more  beautiful  than  another,  with- 
out stop  or  stay  for  months,  and  it  was  a  tender  spiritual  farewell, 
with  ail  one's  dear  ones  about  one,  to  a  year  in  which  one  has  had 
to  live  much  in  crowds,  and  much  alone,  and  much  without  them  in 
both  cases;  a  year  in  which  spiritual  blessings  have  been  many, 
but  have  not,  on  account  of  the  hurry,  and  my  difficulty  in  com- 
bining hurry  with  peace,  yielded  their  harvest  well. 


38  ADDRESSES   TO   LADIES  aet.  55 

One  cannot  leave  the  record  of  this  year  without  men- 
tioning a  scheme  which  then  took  shape  and  which 
demanded  later  from  the  Archbishop  much  time  and 
thought — time  and  thought  willingly  given  to  what  was 
a  deep  and  important  interest  to  him,  even  an  enjoyment. 
In  all  the  years  that  followed,  at  first  weekly,  later  less 
frequently,  his  engagement  book  while  he  was  in  London 
had  the  entry  €va-xv/^ov6<i  ("  honourable  women ").  The 
following  account  of  the  movement  has  been  sent  me  by 
Adeline,  Duchess  of  Bedford,  who  was  closely  identified 
with  it  from  the  very  first.     She  writes : — 

A  character'  in  one  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  novels  asserts  that 
sensible  men  are  all  of  the  same  religion,  though  what  that  religion 
is,  sensible  men  never  tell.  This  epigram  describes  a  type  of  mind 
not  unknown  to  London  Society  although  the  Archbishop  was 
somewhat  loth  to  recognize  its  existence — "What  then  do  they 
believeV  he  would  ask  impatiently,  when  the  attitude  of  "  sensible  " 
men  on  such  a  question  as  missionary  effort  had  been  explained 
to  him.  This  absence  of  definite  conviction  (combined  though 
it  often  is  with  a  large  and  generous  outlook  upon  human  affairs) 
was,  to  him,  a  painful  phenomenon.  As  it  forced  itself  on  his 
attention  he  brooded  much  over  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the 
world,  with  especial  regard  to  the  responsibilities  of  persons  of 
wealth,  rank  and  influence. 

His  own  ideal  of  the  uses  of  a  great  position  was  a  very  noble 
one,  and  its  realization  in  many  cases  that  he  had  known  had 
happily  confirmed  it.  A  great  name  and  continuity  of  possessions 
appealed  to  his  vivid  historic  sense ;  it  pleased  him  thus  to  link 
the  England  of  to-day  to  that  of  three  centuries  ago.  "  I  feel  as 
if  I  had  a  perfectly  new  glimpse  of  English  history  from  the 
livingness  of  all  those  portraits  in  their  wonderful  order,"  he 
wrote  on  leaving  Woburn  Abbey  in  1892.  And  again,  after 
some  anxious  reflections  as  to  how  far  the  use  made  in  the  present 
day  of  such  positions  by  their  possessors  would  justify  or  tend  to 
maintain  them  in  the  future,  he  wrote  : — "  It  would  be  piteous  if 

^  Waldershare,  in  Endymion.  The  character  is  said  to  have  been  in- 
tended for  George  Sydney  Smythe,  of  "Young  England,"  the  prototype  also  of 
Coningsby. 


i885     REMINISCENCES— DUCHESS   OF   BEDFORD      39 

people  who  begin  the  world  with  such  advantages  as  a  class  really 
lost  them  through  not  using  them.  If  at  the  same  time  the  clergy 
lost  their  own  vantage  ground  for  any  faults  of  their  own,  what  a 
mass  of  formative  influences  would  be  cut  off  from  this  rising 
democracy.  But  I  can't  really  believe  that  either  event  will 
happen,  either  slowly  or  quickly.  A  new  wind  must  blow  from 
somewhere.  On  the  whole  though,  ^ worth''  as  you  call  it,  has 
characterized  the  upper  folks — cleverness  certainly — but  I  should 
say  worth  too,  if  all  that  constitutes  worth  is  added  in." 

He  counted  a  man  happy  who  had  large  responsibilities  :  life 
and  thought,  he  believed,  grew  under  the  pressure,  and  failure 
could  not  altogether  attend  upon  sincerity ;  but  a  career  of  self- 
pleasing,  whether  in  man  or  woman,  was  from  the  first,  he  main- 
tained, a  process  of  decay,  and  many  a  young  life  was  tainted  at 
the  core.  For  some  reason,  not  perhaps  very  definable,  many 
thoughtful  women  were  stirred  in  the  years  1884-5  "^^'^  the  desire 
to  purify  and  elevate  the  moral  tone  of  Society  in  London.  A 
West-end  Mission  had  been  announced  for  Lent,  1885,  and  it 
seemed  an  occasion  for  a  real  effort  to  bring  religious  influences 
to  bear  on  those  who  were  perhaps  least  aware  that  they  needed 
them.  The  Archbishop  was  approached  through  Dr  Wilkinson 
(then  Bishop  of  Truro  and  formerly  Vicar  of  St  Peter's,  Eaton 
Square),  and  the  result  was  that  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  his 
Archiepiscopate  he  found  himself  confronted  with  a  problem  of 
singular  difficulty,  from  which  many  a  man,  equally  conscientious, 
but  less  intrepid,  might  have  turned  away  in  despair.  It  was  not 
in  his  nature  to  shrink  from  difficulty ;  the  demand  for  allies, 
moreover,  was  a  call  of  honour.  "They  have  appealed  to  the 
Bishops,"  he  would  say,  "we  must  not  fail  them."  The  Spring  of 
1884  found  him  accordingly  ready  to  hear,  to  advise,  and  to  act. 
A  meeting  took  place  in  Lambeth  Palace,  which  was  attended  by 
about  thirty  ladies,  most  of  whom  took  part  in  a  discussion  on  the 
probable  causes  of  the  decline  in  morals  and  religion  in  the  social 
world  of  London.  This  gathering  was  followed  by  several  others, 
and  eventually  a  scheme  was  drawn  out  which  took  shape  in  the 
following  year.  It  included  a  series  of  discourses  on  social  subjects 
which  were  delivered  in  Westminster  Abbey  to  large  audiences  by 
the  Bishop  of  Truro,  and  the  present  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 
and  York.  But  the  most  interesting  proved  the  most  permanent 
feature,  viz. : — a  course  of  addresses  given  by  himself  in  Lambeth 
Palace  Chapel,  which,  begun  in  the  Spring  of  1885,  continued  till 


4° 


THE   ADDRESSES  aet.  55 


the  year  of  his  death.  By  a  strange  coincidence  of  events  the  first 
meeting  took  place  under  circumstances  of  pecuHar  solemnity: 
the  Soudan  Campaign  was  in  progress,  and  from  almost  every 
home  a  soldier  son,  brother  or  husband  had  gone  forth.  The 
Chapel  was  thronged,  and  many  and  fervent  intercessions  were 
offered  for  the  safe  return  of  the  absent,  and  for  comfort  in 
bereavement  and  anxiety  to  sorrowing  hearts  at  home.  As  time 
went  on,  and  the  shadows  dispersed,  the  character  of  the  audience 
was  to  a  considerable  extent  modified.  The  Archbishop's  teaching 
was  at  no  time  of  a  popular  order,  and  this  (together  with  other 
reasons  of  a  more  practical  and  mundane  character)  sifted  his 
hearers.  For  the  last  ten  years,  however,  few  changes  occurred, 
and  many  will  recall  the  sense  of  quickened  expectation  with 
which  they  took  their  accustomed  places  year  by  year. 

The  Address  was  preceded  by  a  Hymn  rendered  with  great 
sweetness  and  intelligence  by  a  choir  of  ladies.  A  Collect  or  two 
followed.  Then  the  kneeling  forms  rose,  amid  a  silence  broken 
only  by  the  twitter  of  birds  in  the  garden  without,  as  the  light  of 
the  Spring  evening  lingered.  Bibles  were  opened  and  the  hour  of 
initiation  had  come  for  many  a  hearer.  The  Archbishop  was  a 
master  in  the  art  of  the  exposition  of  Scripture.  Character  and 
scene  lived  and  glowed  under  his  hand ;  the  past  mingled  with 
the  present;  Divine  activities  were  at  work;  there  were  "signs" 
now  as  then.  He  loved  to  touch  with  a  word  the  ideal  of 
condition,  state  or  duty  :  the  matrons  who  in  demeanour  were 
as  Priestesses^ — or  the  contemplative  souls  withdrawn  by  sorrow 
from  life's  energies  and  peacefully  seated"  at  the  feet  of  Christ. 
The  poetry  of  goodness  was  felt  in  his  every  word,  and  he  would 
have  agreed  with  Edward  Fitzgerald  that  the  patience  of  Romney's 
wife  was  more  artistic  than  her  husband's  pictures.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  never  ignored  the  subtle  attractions  of  evil  to  the  lower 
nature.  He  would  track  impulse  to  its  source  and  find  it  lodged 
in  unsuspected  habits  ;  self-seeking  was  unmasked,  and  no  disguise 
covered  insincerity.  Strenuous  himself  to  the  point  of  sternness, 
he  could  not  tolerate  an  easy  or  sentimental  pietism.  Pitiless 
excision  of  the  unworthy  elements  in  character,  and  untiring 
cultivation  of  its  higher  qualities  seemed  to  him  to  leave  less 
space  for  emotion  than  is  often  allotted  to  it  in  the  spiritual  life, 
and  perhaps  for  this  reason  he  quoted  with  approval  the  saying  of 

1  Titus  ii.  3  Gr.  2  j  Cq^.  vii.  36  Gr. 


i885  VIEW  OF  WOMEN'S   POSITION  41 

another  that  "few  women  are  truly  religious."  A  combination  of 
piety  with  frivolity  was  necessarily  distasteful  to  him,  but,  appre- 
hensive of  unreality  in  its  subtler  forms,  he  would  sometimes  say, 
when  sure  of  his  hearer,  "take  care  not  to  fall  into  religiousness.'^ 
His  own  Mysticism  was  of  a  very  pure  and  elevated  type.  Three 
lines  of  thought  seemed  to  recur  to  him  with  special  frequency 
and  vigour.  (I  doubt  not  that  others  have  noted  them,  but  in 
recalling  the  Lambeth  Chapel  Addresses,  I  cannot  forbear  to  do 
so  as  well.)  First,  he  dwelt  much  on  the  Church, — "the  one  living 
spiritual  reality  besides  God."  Secondly,  on  the  restoration  of 
Humanity  to  its  true  place  in  the  Universe',  and  thirdly,  he  had 
(what  I  may  call)  a  doctrine  of  Sorrows,  of  which  more  hereafter. 
In  these  and  kindred  subjects,  he  rose  to  great  heights ;  but  who 
can  forget  the  peculiar  glow  of  pleasure  with  which  he  produced  a 
neat  bit  of  evidence  in  favour  of  the  Scripture  narrative,  supplied 
by  archaeology,  history  or  language?  He  was  never  content, 
however,  without  a  grasp  of  the  special  circumstances  of  his 
hearers,  and  sought  to  acquaint  himself  in  the  most  minute 
manner  with  the  whole  problem  of  social  life. 

What  gave  my  father  a  peculiar  fitness  for  this  work 
was  not  only  his  high  ideal  of  the  uses  of  "  position  "  but 
his  comprehension  of  women,  and  one  would  pass  over 
much,  in  pourtraying  his  character,  if  one  did  not  touch 
upon  the  view  he  took  of  women  and  their  part  in  Church 
and  State.  It  was  different  from  the  view  usually  taken 
either  by  the  ecclesiastic  or  the  average  educated  man. 
He  did  not  regard  women,  on  the  one  hand,  as  more 
easily  victors  in  the  strife  for  holiness,  nor  on  the  other, 
as  more  heavily  handicapped  in  the  race  for  knowledge, 
neither  as  necessarily  superior  in  character,  nor  essentially 
inferior  in  intellect.  But  again  he  did  not,  as  do  most  advo- 
cates for  what  are  vulgarly  called  "  women's  rights,"  under- 
estimate the  difference  between  the  mind  of  women  and 
that  of  men.  If  he  had  not  this  difference  prominently 
before  him,  it  was  because  he  did   not  care  to  dwell  on 

1  Deus  qui  humanae  etc.     Collect  for  Matins  and  Vespers  of  the  Nativity. 
Gelasian  Sacramentary  (see  Cyprian^  p.  ■293,  note,  where  the  Collect  is  quoted). 


42  WOMEN'S   EDUCATION  aet.  55 

unfruitful  contrasts,  because  he  estimated  people  primarily 
as  individuals  and  not  in  classes.  He  did  not  contend  that 
a  woman's  education  must  be  the  same,  or  must  be  different 
from  a  man's,  but  he  would  exclude  no  subject,  classical, 
scientific,  philosophical  or  religious,  from  a  woman's  study 
merely  on  the  ground  that  she  was  not  a  man.  If  the 
character  and  if  the  mind  were  suitable  the  subject  was 
suitable.  He  was  quite  clear  from  his  experience  as  to 
the  subjects  which  were  generally  suitable  for  the  educa- 
tion of  boys — he  would  allow  instinct  and  taste  to  mark 
out  new  paths  if  it  seemed  weil  for  girls.  "  Not  one  step 
taken  thus  far  in  woman's  education  and  advance,"  he 
wrote  in  1889,  "can  be  said  to  have  led  to  one  evil  or 
done  one  mischief  Her  dignity  has  risen  steadily  with 
her  power  for  good\" 

As  the  distinctions  between  schools  of  thought  in  reli- 
gious matters  were  seldom  prominently  in  his  mind,  since 
he  saw  something  more  important  than  schools — namely 
religion — so  the  distinction  between  women  and  men  was 
not  brought  forward,  for  he  cared  for  something  more  fun- 
damental— namely  the  individual. 

But  he  was  not  therefore  careless  of  special  qualities 
that  women  may  have  and  may  use  for  the  Nation  and  the 
Church,  but  like  a  "wise  master  builder"  brought  these 
forward  where  they  were  needed  ;  seeing  not  only  those, 
which,  like  tact,  are  commonly  ascribed,  but  qualities  which, 
like  a  fine  perception  and  judgment,  are  not  often  con- 
ceded. 

When  the  mission  to  the  Assyrian  Christians  was 
started  one  of  the  first  things  he  said  was  "  now  we  must 
have  a  ladies'  association " ;  when  committees  were  or- 
ganised for  diffusion  of  knowledge  about  Church  History 
and  for  the  defence  of  the  establishment,  he  founded  at 

^  Christ  and  His   Times,  p.  105. 


i885  WOMEN'S   WORK  43 

once  a  committee  of  women.  The  literary  committee  of 
the  C.  C.  C.  was  at  first  composed  of  women  only. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  he  was  never  disap- 
pointed in  the  working  of  these,  but  his  ideal  was  in  all 
things  pitched  so  high,  his  expectations  were  so  sanguine, 
that  perhaps  nothing  short  of  a  committee  of  angels  could 
wholly  have  come  up  to  them. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  his  view  was  formed. 
The  remarkable  strength  and  capability  of  his  mother, 
exercised  indeed  in  a  small  sphere,  made  a  great  and 
early  impression  upon  him.  His  youngest  sister  had,  with 
others,  made  something  of  an  era  in  the  education  of  girls 
in  England.  It  would  little  become  me  to  dwell  on  what 
my  mother's  companionship  had  been,  but  how  much  he 
depended  on  her  judgment  is  evident  to  everyone  who 
knew  them.  His  friendships  with  women  have  already 
been  mentioned  and  from  the  father  of  early  friends  of  his — 
from  Bishop  Wordsworth — he  had  perhaps  partly  imbibed 
the  view  he  took.  It  has  been  seen  how  he  writes  to 
Bishop  Wordsworth  of  the  "  Tudor  age  of  women  "  and 
how,  staying  at  Riseholme  in  March,  1869,  he  writes  to  my 
mother  of  the  Bishop's  view  of  the  place  of  women  in  the 
Church. 

With  such  a  view  of  the  capacities  of  those  with  whom 
he  had  to  deal,  with  an  ideal  so  great  of  the  way  in  which 
their  capacities  and  position  might  be  used,  this  work 
cannot  be  reckoned  among  the  least  of  his  life. 

On  January  7th,  1885,  the  Archbishop  heard  of  the 
death  of  Bishop  Jackson,  of  London.     He  writes  : — 

Wednesday.  The  Bishop  of  London  died  as  he  slept,  without 
having  moved.  What  a  sweet  end  for  the  patient  gentle  life  of  so 
honest  a  counsellor  and  so  incessant  a  worker.  To  me  always 
most  fatherly,  and  more  and  more  since  I  came  to  Canterbury. 
Not  an  overpowering  man,  but  how  much  nobler  than  over- 
powerers. 


44  DEATH   OF   BISHOP   JACKSON  aet.  55 

To  Bishop   Wordsworth,  of  Lincoln. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
12  Jan.  1885. 
My  dearest  Lord-Father, 

Your  present  to  me  of  a  most  noble  copy  of  Cyril  of 
Alexandria  has  this  evening  arrived — and  Elizabeth  had  privately 
sent  me  your  most  loving  and  stimulating  expression  of  love 
which  I  shall  place  as  a  inonimentum  et  pignus  in  the  forefront  of 
it.  It  is  most  refreshing  to  me,  except  so  far  as  it  tells  me  of 
what  I  might  have  been  to  you,  if  I  had  been  worthier,  rather 
than  what  I  have  been  to  you. 

But  you  know  how  dearly  I  do  love  you,  and  what  thoughts 
of  love  and  Christian  fatherliness  rest  on  the  memory  of  every  day 
and  walk  and  talk  enjoyed  with  you.  They  at  any  rate  are  not 
lost,  and  I  take  Cyril  to  witness  that  I  will  try  that  they  may  be 
more  fruitful. 

Your  paper  on  Wyclif  written  with  such  vigour  and  research 
under  such  suffering  must  surely  have  had  an  effect  in  sobering 
us  all.  I  think  the  commemoration  came  to  little ;  but  the 
pamphlet  now  will  perhaps  war^j  many  people  and  me  too,  to 
deeper  study  of  his  work.  Thank  you  for  another  affectionate 
mention,  in  that,  of  work  which  does  not  merit  so  much. 

The  funeral  of  the  Bishop  of  London  was  most  beautiful  and 
solemn.  Infinite  respect  was  shown  to  him.  The  sweet  enthu- 
siasm seemed  to  be  a  comfort  which  his  daughters  in  their  hour  of 
sorrow  could  even  feed  on.  The  crowds  of  mourners  mourned 
as  full  of  hope.  All  the  daughters  are  wonderfully  upheld.  He 
has  been  a  wise,  well-informed,  sober  and  comforting  counsellor. 
I  count  his  goodness  to  me  among  the  blessings  poured  down  on 
my  work  these  two  years. 

But  there  is  no  kindness  like  yours  to 

Your  most  loving  orator^, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

In  writing  to  Miss  Jackson  he  said  :— 
It  seems  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  most  perfect  instances  of  the 
many  I  have  known,  of  God's  own  loving  hand  ending  the  lives  of 

1  Orator,  from  oro,  one  who  prays:  a  variation  on  "bedesman,"  his  usual 
signature  to  the  Bishop. 


i885  BISHOP   TEMPLE   TO   LONDON  45 

His  servants  in  the  most  exact  fittingness.  The  Bishop  of  Lincoln 
says,  "  He  was  always  so  full  of  humility  that  he  did  not  need  the 
discipline  of  waiting"— and  one  may  say  that  he  was  so  resigned  to 
do  and  suffer  the  Will  of  God,  that  he  did  not  need  that  suffering 
at  the  last  should  be  added  to  the  suffering  which  had  been  unable 
to  break  his  work,  or  his  patience,  or  his  tenderness. 

On  the  17th  the  Archbishop  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Trustees  of  the  British  Museum  :  he  says  : — 

Saturday,  Jan.  I'jth.  We  had  a  long  discussion  among  the 
Trustees  as  to  whether  to  recommend  that  it  should  be  open  from 
2  to  6  on  Sunday  afternoons.  Something  was  said  about  the 
"English  Sunday,"  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  who  supported  the 
opening  said  strongly  that  he  wished  the  English  Sunday  to  be 
observed. 

I  said  I  had  no  objection,  but  satisfaction,  at  the  thought 
of  poor  people  walking  through  galleries  on  Sunday  who  could  see 
them  no  other  day,  if  that  be  so.  But  I  was  sure  that  Sunday 
traffic  would  make  a  great  advance,  and  put  infinitely  more  omni- 
bus work,  tram  work,  railway  work,  and  cab  work  in  requisition, 
besides  opening  practically  many  more  victualling  rooms.  Abso- 
lutism and  despotism  were  dying  indeed,  but  the  most  miserable 
class  in  the  world,  in  their  own  estimation,  was  the  serving  class 
whom  those  a  little  above  them  kept  at  work  1 7  hours  of  every  day 
without  scruple.  There  were  no  such  tyrants  as  the  democracy- 
strata,  which  could  just  force  work  for  themselves  by  payments 
which  they  could  just  afford.  No  pity  ever  touched  the  people 
who  could  just  get  other  people  to  do  them  service,  by  keeping 
their  souls  and  bodies  together  as  the  price  of  it. 

On  the  22nd  he  has  an  interview  with  Mr  Gladstone 
about  the  vacant  See  of  London  :  he  writes  : — 

Thursday,  Jan.  22nd.  A  long  talk  with  Mr  Gladstone  to  wind 
up  our  conversation.  He  refused  to  appoint  the  Bishop  of 
London  except  on  my  recommendation.  We  thought  on  the 
whole,  though  I  never  in  my  life  had  such  subtle  difficulties  and 
differences  to  weigh,  that  it  was  best  that  the  Bishop  of  Durham 
should  work  out  further  the  great  things  which  he  had  begun  in 
his  northern  region  with  such  great  power — that  he  had  better  be 
reserved   for   the   Archbishopric   of   York,  and  that  neither  his 


46  LETTER   FROM    BISHOP   LIGHTFOOT     aet.  55 

present  work  nor  the  Archbishopric  would  in  so  grave  a  way 
hinder  his  Theological  work,  "so  essential  for  the  Church,"  as 
London  would  undoubtedly  end  it.  We  therefore  determined  on 
the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  who  (without  mentioning  my  name)  is  to  be 
recommended  at  once  to  the  Queen.  No  other  name  was  even 
discussed. 

He  writes  to  acquaint  Bishop  Lightfoot  with  the  decision 
and  receives  the  following  reply : — 

Auckland  Castle, 
Bishop  Auckland. 
Jan.  2is^,  1885. 
My  dearest  Archbishop, 

No  one  can  less  regret  than  myself  that  I  had  not  the 
offer  of  London.  The  wrench  of  leaving  Durham  would  even  be 
worse  than  the  wrench  which  brought  me  here.  I  cou/d  not  have 
accepted  unless  I  could  have  seen  it  was  an  obvious  duty ;  and  I 
do  not  think  I  could  have  so  viewed  it. 

An  ideal  is  gradually  forming  itself,  of  which  I  can  only  say 
that  I  wish  I  had  the  grace  and  power  in  any  degree  to  realise  it. 
But  it  has  its  centre  in  the  work  and  men  gathered  about  me  at 
Auckland  Castle ;  and  this  would  hardly  be  possible  elsewhere. 

Many  thanks  for  your  letter. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

J.  B.  Dunelm. 

To  his  son  Arthur. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
2  Feb.  1885. 
My  dearest  Arthur, 

It  is  a  great  comfort  to  have  seen  you  in  your  new 
quarters  with  the  background  of  school  and  playing-fields. 

I  perceive  that  Sir  H.  Wotton  was  a  determined  enemy  of 
"The  Gothick"  as  dark,  heavy,  and  barbarous — which  fully 
accounts  for  the  bright,  light  and  polite  arches  of  Lower  School '. 

Abp  Laud  is  a  fine  subject  for  a  dissertation.  But  he  is  a 
very  incomprehensible  personage.     The  very  best  thing  which  I 

^  Sir  H.  Wotton,  Provost  of  Eton,  who  thought  Gothic  barbarous,  fitted 
up  the  Lower  School  at  Eton,  in  which  I  was  then  teaching,  with  dark  and 
substantial  Palladian  arches  of  oak,  to  support  the  ceiling. 


i885  ECCLESIASTICAL   COURTS  47 

have  ever  heard  of  him  is  Prof.  J.  B.  Mozley's  essay  on  him  (one 
in  his  two  volumes  of  collected  essays).  It  approaches  nearer 
to  rationalising  so  very  contradictory  a  compound  as  I  think 
he  must  have  been.  Macaulay  was  never  more  wrong  than  in 
despising  Laud's  ability.  But  personally  I  question  very  much 
whether  there  is  at  present  enough  material  to  form  a  complete 
picture  or  judgment.  There  must  be  great  materials  yet  to  be 
reproduced  out  of  the  Record  Office  or  some  other  slumbrous 
receptacle — and  my  only  fear  is  that  such  a  discovery  may  some 
day  render  all  previous  work  futile.  At  present  there  is  really  no 
knowing  what  was  meant  by  "  Thorough."  Well,  that  is  the  key 
to  the  whole  policy.  And  evidently  we  shall  one  day  have  it  all 
in  print. 

What  a  long  letter. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  father, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 
Dio  vi  benedica. 

On  the  3rd  February  he  held  a  meeting  of  Bishops,  at 
Lambeth,  to  discuss  the  Report  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts 
Commission,  of  which  when  Bishop  of  Truro  he  had  been  a 
member,  and  to  decide  upon  possible  legislation.  He 
writes  : — 

Tuesday,  Feb.  T^rd.  Held  a  Committee  at  Lambeth  of  the 
Bishops  who  had  sate  on  the  Commission.  They  went  through 
the  Bill  drafted  by  Sir  H.  Thring^  on  the  lines  of  the  Report,  and 
read  his  memorandum.  Considering  the  intensity  of  the  feeling 
when  Green  was  imprisoned"^,  and  the  imminent  certainty  that 
a  new  crop  of  trials  might  be  originated  at  any  moment  by  the 
Church  Association,  it  is  marvellous  that  such  an  apathy  as  to 

^  Created  Lord  Thring  in  1886. 

2  The  Rev.  Sydney  Faithome  Green,  Rector  of  St  John's,  Miles  Platting, 
was  charged  under  the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Act  with  introducing  un- 
authorised ornaments  into  the  Church,  and  using  unauthorised  ceremonies  and 
vestments  in  the  Communion  Service.  Lord  Penzance  in  1879  issued  succes- 
sively a  monition  and  inhibition,  which  were  both  disregarded.  In  1881 
Mr  Green  was  imprisoned  at  Lancaster.  Proceedings  for  a  habeas  corpus 
failed  in  every  court.  At  length  in  Nov.  1882,  the  benefice  having  become 
void  under  the  Act,  Lord  Penzance  liberated  him  on  the  application  of 
Dr  Fraser,  Bishop  of  Manchester. 


48  GENERAL   GORDON  aet.  55 

the  necessity  for  legislation  should  have  come  on.  It  is  all  very 
well  if  there  were  to  be  no  more  proceedings.  Naturally  in  that 
case  we  should  not  want  Courts. 

But  I  fear  this  alternate  heat  and  cold  has  become  characteristic 
of  us  in  all  things.  The  intense  excitement  when  Gordon  went 
out— the  coolness  when  he  was  gone— the  total  indifference  about 
Transvaal  affairs— are  like  flushes  and  chills  on  ecclesiastical 
legislation — and  if  excitement  returns  and  our  courts  are  what 
they  were  we  shall  be  poorly  armed. 

He  records  on  the  4th  of  February  the  failure  of  this 
attempt  at  legislation.     He  says  : — 

I  regret  deeply  that  there  should  be  no  legislation  after  all  the 
preparation  for  it.  But  we  could  do  nothing  disunitedly,  and  we 
are  not  ready. 

On  Feb.  8th  he  preached  at  Westminster  ;  the  intensest 
anxiety  was  then  prevailing  as  to  the  fate  of  General 
Gordon  at  Khartoum  ;  a  singular  incident  occurred :  he 
writes  : — 

Preached  in  Westminster  Abbey — enormous  crowds  of  men — 
as  we  started  in  procession  from  nave  to  choir,  the  precentor  and 
Dr  Troutbeck  hurried  from  their  places  to  the  Dean,  and  said, 
"  The  Government  have  sent  you  special  message  that  Gordon  is 
alive."  "The  Government."  The  Dean  told  me  instantly,  and 
as  he  spoke  Mr  Gladstone  passed  by  the  procession  and  went 
on  to  the  choir.  The  Dean  seeing  this  concluded  that  Gladstone 
had  given  the  message — and  as  there  was  not  a  moment  to  ask 
more,  gave  me  his  permission  to  mention  it  in  the  sermon.  No 
one  was  so  astonished  as  Mr  Gladstone. 

On  the  nth  February  the  actual  news  of  Gordon's 
death  arrived. 

Thursday,  Feb.  i()th.  Sat  to  Mr  Joy'  for  an  hour.  House  of 
Lords  at  4.30.  A  very  feeble  hopeless  defence  of  the  Eg>'ptian 
policy  of  the  Government  by  Lord  Granville — a  dark  minatory 
speech  of  Lord  Salisbury.  Vote  of  censure  expected  Monday. 
The  terrible  news  arrived  that  Baker  has  had  to  fall  back  from 
Abuklea  to  Guldac,  and  of  how  easily  our  seven  thousand  may 
be  surrounded  by  the  sixty  thousand  of  Mahdi's,  how  if  the 
^  Mr  Bruce  Joy,  sculptor. 


i885  HORSE   ACCIDENT  49 

Mahdi  presses  on  he  may  take  Korosko  and  hold  our  men  in 
his  hand — -and  how  that  he  is  pressing  on.  I  met  Mr  Gladstone 
this  afternoon  walking  in  the  park,  and  looking  perfectly  lost — 
he  made  a  bow  which  seemed  to  say  he  was  hundreds  of  miles 
distant  in  spirit.  There  has  never  been  so  universal  a  sense  of 
loss  and  danger  in  England. 

It  was  a  full  house — the  cheers  of  the  Liberals  were  brief  and 
spiritless — the  Conservatives  hoarse  and  threatening. 

On    the    7th    March   he   had  a  curious    accident.     He 
writes : — 

After  having  visited  St  Bartholomew's  the  Great,  to  see  that 
marvellous  still  sanctuary  in  the  mid-roar  of  Smithfield,  my  horse 
fell  with  me  on  the  smooth  asphalte  pavement  of  Holborn,  slippery 
as  it  was  with  moistish  mud.  I  fell  with  him,  but  not  under  him, 
yet  right  beneath  the  feet  of  the  horses  of  a  huge  omnibus.  I  felt 
as  if  their  hoofs  must  strike  my  back.  My  horse  picked  himself 
up  in  an  instant,  and  so  did  I,  perfectly  unhurt,  and  most  strangely 
and  unaccountably  to  me  my  sole  anxiety  at  the  instant  was  to 
recover  my  whip,  over  which  the  horses  instantly  began  to  walk. 
This  quite  absorbed  me  for  a  moment,  so  that  my  horse  and 
myself  were  insignificant  to  me.  How  strange  what  trifles  fill 
one's  mind  at  such  a  moment.  I  think  it  must  be  that  one's 
habit  of  acting  in  common  circumstances  carries  one  on  to  do  what 
it  is  familiar  to  do,  viz.  pick  up  one's  stick  when  one  drops  it — but 
one  is  not  familiar  with  one's  horse  falling  under  an  omnibus  in  a 
crowded  street,  and  requires  a  moment  for  reflection,  doing  in  the 
meantime  what  is  simple  and  habitual.  That  coolness  passes 
sometimes  for  presence  of  mind  when  it  is  really  habit  outrunning 
reflection.  Real  presence  of  mind  is  instantaneous  reflection 
under  strange  circumstances.  Perhaps  the  functions  of  different 
lobes  of  the  brain  are  seen  in  this.  A  lad  slipped  through,  picked 
up  my  whip,  a  little  shoe-black  with  two  brushes  began  to  brush 
my  coat,  half  a  dozen  people  with  anxious  faces  asked  me  how 
I  was,  an  old  man  wrung  my  hand,  John  brought  up  my  Quentin, 
and  I  mounted  and  was  off"  in  an  instant — feeling  marvel  and 
thankfulness. 

On  the  1 2th  of  March  he  says  : — 

Sate  for  half  an  hour  to  Mr  A .     He  is  painting  Cardinal 

Manning.     He  says  Manning  has  the  most  winning  manners  and 

B.   II.  4 


50  MANNING— GLADSTONE  aet.  55 

sweetest  voice — but  creates  in  himself  and  in  most  whom  he 
knows  a  completeness  of  distrust.     At  every  moment  he  looks  as 

if  he  had  an  end  to  answer.     A calls  it  a  very  poor  head  in 

spite  of  the  size  of  the  brain— or  the  apparent  size,  for  much  of  his 
impressive  effect  is  due  to  the  skull  being  so  thinly  covered  with 
parchment  down  to  the  chin  even.  Still  the  face  looks  to  me  as  if 
self  at  any  rate  were  gone  out  of  it— that  is  its  beauty. 

On  the  1 6th  he  writes  : — 

Monday.  "  Quae  homo  in  se  vel  in  aliis  emendare  non  valet, 
debet  patienter  sustinere,  donee  Deus  aliter  ordinet  ....  Si 
quis  se7nel  aut  bis  admonitus  non  acquiescit,  7wli  aun  eo  contendere^ 
sed  totum  Deo  committe  ut  fiat  voluntas  ejus '." 

How  many  fewer  agitations  of  life  and  spirit  would  one  have 
had — how  many  fewer  weeks  of  gloom — in  one's  life  if  one  had 
not  "  contended  "  in  tone  and  spirit,  when  in  no  other  way,  with 
what  one  did  not  and  could  not  save. 

On  the  1 8th  of  March  he  records: — 

Wednesday.  Dined  with  the  Aberdeens,  Mr  and  Mrs  Glad- 
stone, Lord  Lyttelton,  Lady  Frederick  Cavendish,  very  sweet  and 
strong  expression — her  courage  has  been  wonderful,  Mr  and  Mrs 
Quentin  Hogg — he  who  took  the  Polytechnic  buildings  for  a  boys' 
and  young  men's  club  and  instruction  in  technical  knowledge,  and 
religious  teaching.  A  quiet  kind  man.  They  have  150  classes 
and  10,000  members.  Mr  Gladstone  absolutely  lost  in  Mark 
Pattison's  life — his  violent  antichristianism,  of  which  he  quoted 
verbatim  several  mere  paradoxical  sentences.  George  Eliot's  Life  is 
"not  a  life,"  he  says,  "  but  a  reticence."  He  is  much  impressed  too 
with  new  phenomena  of  spiritism  and  the  religious  uses  which  are 
being  made  of  it.  He  never  composes  anything  original,  he  says, 
after  6  p.m.,  it  would  destroy  sleep.  Speaking  in  the  House,  and 
writing  the  Queen  a  full  Report  of  all  proceedings  does  not,  he 
says,  "under  the  law  of  habit"  in  the  least  act  on  his  brain  like 
composition.  He  never  suffers  himself  to  think  after  he  lies  down 
in  bed— that  too  would  be  fatal.  He  warned  me  to  be  much  more 
stiff  against  interruptions. 

^  "The  things  which  a  man  cannot  alter  in  himself  or  in  others,  he  ought 
patiently  to  bear,  until  God  ordain  otherwise.... If  a  man  after  being  once  or 
twice  admonished,  does  not  obey,  do  not  strive  with  him,  but  commit  the 
whole  matter  to  God,  that  His  will  may  be  done." 


i885         FUNERAL   OF   BISHOP   WORDSWORTH  51 

On  the  2 1  St  of  March  my  father  entertained  fifty  of  the 
Church  of  England  Working  Men's  Society  at  Lambeth. 
This  kind  of  gathering  was  one  of  the  Archbishop's  greatest 
pleasures  ;  he  delighted  in  the  talk  of  working  men.  He 
showed  them  all  over  the  palace  himself,  gave  them  a 
lecture  and  an  extempore  service  in  the  Chapel ;  shaking 
hands  with  the  men  he  said,  "  I  can  assure  you  this  is  a 
day  I  shall  never  forget.  I  shall  never  forget  the  way  you 
sang  our  hymn  just  now.  I  can  only  say  in  the  words 
of  the  old  Saint,  '  May  the  Lord  bless  you  and  increase  you 
a  thousandfold,  and  may  you  raise  seed  to  Him  through 
the  generations.'     God  bless  you  all." 

On  the  25th  of  March  he  attended  the  funeral  of  his 
dear  friend  and  master,  Bishop  Wordsworth.    He  writes  : — 

March  2^th.  I  went  on  to  Lincoln  and  arrived  at  two  for  the 
funeral  of  the  Bishop.  The  completely  filled  building,  the  sound 
of  Great  Tom  in  the  air,  the  perfect  stillness  of  such  a  throng,  the 
quiet  approach  of  two  or  three  of  the  Chapter  to  meet  me,  the 
dearness  of  every  stone  of  beauty,  the  vestry  filled  with  well-known 
robed  figures  and  faces,  the  Dean  with  suffering  stamped  on  all  his 
features,  made  a  strange  and  trying  dream  seem  to  come  over  me. 
It  was  but  the  other  day  I  followed  him  in  a  thin  procession  out  of 
St  Hugh's  Chapel  for  his  enthronement,  and  now  this  great  pro- 
cession went  to  receive  him  out  of  the  Morning  Chapel.  He  was 
followed  by  the  family  and  then  by  almost  all  the  clergy  of  the 
diocese.  They  and  the  Corporation  and  a  few  country  gentlemen 
filled  the  whole  of  the  glorious  choir,  while  the  coffin  with  his 
pastoral  staff  on  it  and  wreaths  of  flowers  lay  just  above  the 
grander  choir,  four  chaplains  standing  beside  it.  The  singing  was 
of  the  quiet  meditative  and  most  sweet  character  which  has  been 
long  peculiar  to  Lincoln  alone.  I  read  the  Lesson.  They  gave  me 
my  dear  old  Chancellor's  stall,  with  my  old  Prayer-book  and  its 
monogram,  and  two  chaplains  had  Aylesbury  and  Heydour.  The 
throne  was  hung  with  black  where  he  used  to  kneel  with  that 
piercing  force  of  devotion  and  his  ejaculations  of  Amen,  Amen, 
half  through  the  next  Collects.  The  mass  of  students  of  the 
Scholae,  the  clergy  in  the  Lincoln  hood,  and  the  others  in  gowns, 

4—2 


52  DEATH   OF   LORD   CAIRNS  aet.  55 

told  how  one  of  our  dreams  had  been  reaUsed.  It  was  impossible 
to  be  afflicted.  All  has  come  and  gone  so  naturally,  and  this  is  so 
natural  itself,  and  the  hope  so  perfect  as  to  be  not  hope,  and  the 
thankfulness  so  intense  that  he  is  delivered  from  the  terrible  cloud 
and  suffering  of  the  months  since  Mrs  Wordsworth's  deaths  It 
was  so  strange  that  the  great  scholar  and  incessant  reader  ceased 
to  feel  the  least  interest  in  any  book  but  one,  and  he  whose  nerves 
were  equal  to  anything  could  not  bear  to  be  alone,  yet  could  not 
bear  the  very  sound  of  a  pen  in  the  room,  and  yet  did  not  ever  in 
a  single  instance  lose  the  gentleness  and  sweet  deference  and 
courtesy  of  gratitude  to  every  single  person  about  him.  The  end 
has  been  very  sad.  I  must  write  it  for  my  own  edification  and 
remembrance  and  preparation. 

On  the  30th  March  he  writes : — 

Monday.  Went  with  the  girls  to  see  the  two  most  unlike 
pictures  that  ever  were :  Holman  Hunt's  Triumph  of  Innocents, 
and  Munkacsy's  Crucifixion.  The  spiritual  water  in  the  former  is 
a  strange  and  unnatural  conception,  yet  it  is  one  of  the  things  in 
which  I  feel  an  artist's  business  is  to  teach — "  he  is  judged  of  no 
man."  It  is  his  to  fling  down  the  symbols  for  interpretation.  But 
yet,  what  can  he  mean  by  those  bubbles?  the  largest  of  which 
shows  in  colour  the  history  from  the  Dream  of  Jacob  to  the 
Adoration  of  the  Lamb.  He  cannot  have  reflected  that  bubbles 
burst.  This  is  beyond  me.  Perhaps  spiritual  bubbles  do  not.  I 
am  lost.  The  Crucifixion  finer.  The  merits  of  the  great  Dutch- 
men are  on  this  Hungarian.  But  \}i\Q.  faces  which  should  be  finest 
are  hidden  like  Agamemnon's.  The  face  is  too  much  in  the  act  of 
"  pousser  un  cri  "  and  dying.  The  awful  being  is  Judas— it  must 
be  he — running  for  his  life  to  death— spite  of  the  error  of  date. 

Thursday,  April  2nd.  Lord  Cairns  has  died,  taking  away  one 
of  the  best  arguers,  most  respected  chiefs,  and  purest  characters 
from  the  Conservative  benches.  His  delicate  look  and  his  stoop 
and  the  drawing  in  of  his  cheeks  did  not  nevertheless  detract 
from  his  powerful  physique  in  general,  they  made  one  only  feel 
as  if  he  were  "  not  quite  well  to-day:''  But  a  chill  caught  in  riding 
brought  him  down  at  once.     The  weather  has  been  that  which 

1  Mrs  Wordsworth  died  on  her  husband's  birthday,  Oct.  ii,  1884.  The 
Bishop  died  the  day  after  the  election  of  his  successor  in  the  Cathedral.  He 
was  buried  on  the  Festival  of  the  Annunciation,  the  great  day  of  the  Cathedral. 


i885  MARK   PATTISON— MANNING  53 

makes  you  soon  hot  with  exercise  and  soon  chilled  by  the  piercing 
wind. 

April  6th.  Finished  Mark  Pattison's  Memoir.  There  is  a  safer 
Coward's  Castle  than  the  pulpit  itself.  And  that  is  the  grave.  From 
them  both  you  can  pour  forth  showers  of  poisoned  arrows.  But 
to  do  it  effectively  you  must  first  disbelieve  in  them.  Pattison  has 
done  it  effectively.  By  many  it  is  said  that  the  belief  in  Christianity 
has  nothing  to  do  with  forming  the  gentle  noble  temper,  and 
grandeur  towards  adversaries  and  humility — that  philosophy  is  the 
real  mother  of  discipline  within.  The  books  which  are  beginning 
to  appear,  revealing  the  innerness  of  philosophies,  do  not  bear  this 
out.  Carlyle,  (even  George  Eliot,)  Pattison.  It  would  have  been 
a  contradiction  in  the  nature  of  things,  had  such  a  writer  as 
Pattison  even  believed  himself  to  be  a  Christian.  But  he  assures 
us  in  every  page  towards  the  end  that  he  was  not  so  much  a 
philosopher  as  philosophy. 

On  the  nth  of  April  he  notes  : — 

An  admirer  of  Manning  told  anecdotes  illustrative  of  his 
skill  and  readiness,  among  others  this : — A  young  fellow  had 
joined  the  Romanists.  The  following  Sunday  the  father  of  the 
young  man  made  his  way  into  the  sacristy  where  Manning  was 
unrobing  after  Mass  among  the  priests.  The  poor  father  burst 
out  with  much  indignation  against  the  way  in  which  his  son 
had  been  secretly  tampered  with,  persuaded  to  hold  his  tongue, 
and  go  to  church  regularly,  until  the  moment  of  his  recep- 
tion. Manning  drew  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  stretched 
out  his  arm  and  long  finger,  and  looking  most  impressive  and 
ascetic  as  he  stood  still  half  robed,  said  "  Hold  !  Man,  you  have 
blasphemed  the  Church  of  God — you  have  maligned  the  Ministers 
of  His  altar.  You  have  hated  the  salvation  of  your  son — and  you 
yourself  within  three  years  will  be  a  Catholic."  All  were  pro- 
foundly struck — the  father  was  speechless  and  quietly  went  away. 
A  little  time  afterwards  my  friend's  informant  said  to  Manning, 
"That  was  very  astonishing.  How  did  you  know  and  feel  so  sure 
of  what  you  uttered  ?"  Manning  said,  "  Well,  my  dear  fellow,  it  was 
a  very  difficult  situation ;  and  I  thought  it  might  impress  him." 

On  the  2 1  St  of  April  he  writes: — 

Heard  early  yesterday  of  the  Dean  of  Lincoln's'  death.     He 
has  suffered  sadly.     He  told  me  when  I  saw  him  at  Lincoln  that 
1  J.  W.  Blakesley. 


54  RESTORATION   OF   PETERBOROUGH      aet.  55 

he  should  be  gone  before  July.  He  was  a  very  deUcate  and  choice 
scholar.  Not  of  an  ecclesiastical  turn  of  mind,  but  very  valuable 
to  ecclesiastics  by  his  application  of  a  critical  measure  of  justifi- 
ableness  to  all  they  did  and  proposed.  "What  do  you  mean 
exactly  ?  What  are  your  exact  grounds  ?  What  is  the  exact  effect 
which  you  believe  your  proposal  will  have?"  He  did  me  much 
good,  because  I  always  determined  that  I  would  in  the  last  resort 
obey  him  in  all  Cathedral  matters,  however  little  I  liked  doing  so. 
Rode  yesterday  for  two  hours  about  our  paths  and  rides  without 
going  out  of  the  park.  Everything  bursting  into  perfect  beauty 
just  as  we  leave  it  for  our  ill-timed  Season. 

On  the  22nd  of  April  his  award  in  the  restoration  of 
Peterborough  Cathedral  was  given.  Lord  Grimthorpe  (then 
Sir  Edmund  Beckett),  Professor  Freeman  and  the  Cathedral 
Chapter  chose  him  as  arbitrator.  It  was  not  only  his 
official  position,  but  his  fine  taste  combined  with  his 
knowledge  of  architecture  and  ecclesiastical  history  which 
fitted  him  especially  to  arbitrate  in  so  complicated  a 
matter.  The  questions  were,  (i)  the  precise  authority  of 
the  wishes  of  the  Chapter  over  the  wishes  of  the  General 
Committee,  (2)  whether  the  ancient  Norman  Tower  should 
be  replaced,  or  the  later  Decorated  Tower  retained.  The 
Archbishop  decided  (i)  that  a  small  Executive  Committee 
should  be  elected  from  the  Chapter  and  the  General 
Committee,  whose  decisions  should  be  paramount,  (2)  that 
the  Decorated  Tower  should,  as  more  consistent  with  the 
continuity  of  historical  tradition,  be  restored. 

On  the  24th  he  writes : — 

"Non  est  creatura  tam  parva  et  vilis  quae  Dei  bonitatem 
non  repraesentet."  . 

Yesterday  I  saw  a  girl  of  1 2  or  13  turn  out  of  a  door  and  walk 
on  before  me — dirty,  torn — her  face  was  as  if  it  had  been  pressed 
fiat,  and  recovered  itself  a  little.  Her  knee  was  weak  so  that  she 
seemed  to  throw  out  her  left  foot  as  far  as  it  would  go,  and  pull  it 
in  again  by  way  of  walking — lilting  out  with  half  her  body  each 
step,  to  gain  the  requisite  ponderance.  She  has  to  live  a  Ufe  out 
under   these   limitations — and   there  was    not   in    her   look   any 


i885  CONSECRATION   OF   BISHOP   KING  55 

apparent  effect  of  an  ideal,  or  of  a  reliance,  yet  there  is  in  her 
remaining  organization,  and  I  doubt  not  in  her  spirit,  quite  enough 
to  show,  quite  enough  to  take  in  and  give  out  the  "  Goodness  of 
God."  It  wants  redemption — deliverance  and  clearance.  And  I 
doubt  not  that  there  is  abundant  parvitas  et  vilitas  in  me,  who  am 
unfettered  bodily,  and  have,  or  think  I  have,  an  ideal,  to  make 
a  still  less  fettered  being  wonder  how  in  the  world  my  limitations 
can  possibly  be  got  over.  It  can  be  only  by  Averts  and  Avrpwcrts'; 
O  to  see  and  to  he.  free  ! 

On  the  25th  of  April  he  writes  : — 

Saturday,  St  Mark.  Anniversary  of  Lightfoot's,  Wilkinson's, 
my  own  consecration^only  eight  years  ago. 

Consecrated  at  St  Paul's,  with  a  mighty  congregation,  Edward 
King  to  be  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  E.  H.  Bickersteth  to  be  Bishop 
of  Exeter.  Canon  Liddon  preached  a  Manifesto  concerning  the 
power  and  authority  of  the  Episcopate,  and  condemning  vehe- 
mently all  "  Modernismus,"  not  only  the  Courts  and  the  Public 
Worship  Regulation  Act,  but  declaring  the  Education  Act  of  1870 
to  be  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  Board  Schools  its  evil  fruit. 

Fewer  persons  than  usual,  in  proportion,  communicated.  This 
is  owing  to  the  growth  of  "  Fasting  Communion  "  as  a  necessity 
and  not  as  a  pious  discipline  only.  And  this,  which  is  in  the 
Church  a  piece  of  the  Materialism  that  is  in  the  world  of  to-day,  has 
taken  great  root  among  the  followers  of  the  holy  and  influential 
Canon  King.  It  is  strange  that  a  great  many  years  ago,  when  I 
was  at  Wellington,  I  remember  Dean  Wellesley's  showing  me 
some  most  strong  letters  to  the  Queen  and  Ministers  against 
King's  being  made  Professor  at  Oxford — on  the  ground  of  intel- 
lectual inadequacy.  The  Dean  gave  me  plenty  of  indication  of  the 
untruth  of  the  allegation.  I  recommended  him  to  persevere  with  the 
recommendation  of  King.  The  attacking  party  were  not  likely  to 
be  so  strong  against  what  was  purely  to  their  advantage,  and  they 
must  have  had  their  own  reasons  for  expecting  his  influence  for 
the  Church  and  Christianity  to  be  great.     And  so  it  has  proved. 

On  the  29th  the  Archbishop  was  presented  with  a 
magnificent  Primatial  Cross  for  the  See  of  Canterbury, 
of  silver  gilt,  set  with  splendid  sapphires,  designed  by 
Messrs  Bodley  and  Garner.      The   movement   to   present 

1  Remission  and  redemption. 


56  REVISED   VERSION  aet.  55 

it  originated  from  Truro.  He  said  that  he  accepted  it 
as  a  remembrance  that  this  was  to  be  "  a  standard  of 
the  King  of  kings,  the  great  sign  of  the  Word  of  God 
which  rode  on  conquering  and  to  conquer." 

On  the  30th  of  April  the  Revised  Version  of  the  Scrip- 
tures was  presented  to  the  House  of  Convocation,  in  the 
College  Hall  of  Westminster  School.  "That,"  said  the 
Archbishop,  receiving  it,  "is  a  far  greater  and  more 
important  gift  than  the  Archiepiscopal  Cross  with  which 
the  Metropolitan  See  has  just  been  endowed." 

TJie  Queen  to  the  Archbishop. 

Windsor  Castle. 

May  18,   1885. 

The  Queen  has  to  thank  the  Archbishop  for  his  kind  letter 
and  at  the  same  time  to  ask  him  and  the  Convocation  to  accept 
her  best  thanks  for  the  beautiful  Copy  of  the  New  Revised 
Version  of  the  Bible. 

She  must  congratulate  those  who  have  laboured  so  anxiously 
and  earnestly,  on  having  executed  this  most  important  and  diffi- 
cult work  so  successfully,  and  can  assure  the  Archbishop  and 
Convocation  of  the  deep  interest  with  which  she  will  read  these 
Sacred  Volumes. 

On  June  loth  he  writes : — 

Wedfiesday.  Dined  Middle  Temple  on  their  Great-Grand 
Day.  Very  striking,  430  in  Hall.  Prince  Edward  made  a  Bencher. 
According  to  their  customs  sat  above  Prince  of  Wales,  whose  guest 
I  was  supposed  to  be,  and  next  to  the  Treasurer,  the  Master 
of  the  Temple  being  the  chief  guest  on  the  Treasurer's  right. 

Opposite  to  me  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  whom  I  never  met 
before.  The  opinion  of  the  students  immensely  conservative. 
They  cheered  enormously  when  he  drank  the  loving  cup,  almost 
as  loud  when  Sir  S.  Northcote^  drank — Lord  Derby  had  to  drink 
in  absolute  and  perfect  silence.  Every  one  was  surprised  at  the 
unanimity  of  the  demonstration. 

^  The  Ministry  of  Mr  Gladstone  had  just  been  defeated.  In  the  new 
government  Sir  S.  Northcote  became  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  an  Earl, 
and  Lord  R.  Churchill  Secretary  of  State  for  Lidia. 


i885  THE   ARCHBISHOP'S   WORK  57 

Lord  R.  Churchill  had  just  returned  from  Paris.  There,  he 
said,  Bismarck  was  ruling  everything.  He  was  supreme  with  so 
large  a  mass  of  men,  whom  he  named,  among  political  leaders. 
They  were  quite  able  to  keep  the  Republican  party  in  power 
against  endless  feeling.  Lord  R.  Churchill  added  that  the  French 
had  their  revenge  meanwhile,  for  the  Socialist  propaganda  was 
leavening  all  Germany  from  its  immensely  strong  headquarters 
in  Paris. 

June  12th.  The  idea  of  calling  or  vocation  is  so  much  out 
of  date  (as  a  Romish  notion  I  suppose)  that  if  one-tenth  of  the 
people  who  ask  me  for  livings  were  gratified,  there  would  be  no 
living  left  for  those  who  would  never  ask.  The  thought  seems 
dead.  I  think  we  ought  to  get  the  Ordination  Service  altered, 
instead  of  the  old-fashioned  "  Dost  thou  think  thou  art  truly 
called,"  I  ought  to  ask  the  question,  "And  do  you  think  you 
shall  Hke  this  calling  you  have  chosen  ? "  or,  "  Dost  thou  think 
thou  shalt  like  this  line  of  life  which  thou  hast  selected?" 

On  the  23rd  he  says  : — 

Tuesday. — An  excellent  example  of  the  kind  of  day  now 
permitted  to  an  Archbishop,  whose  work  is  supposed  to  depend 
somewhat  on  thinking  and  studying. 

Up  at  6.15,  wrote  until  8.30,  chapel  9.15.  10,  Adeney,  Sir 
Ed.  Hay  Currie  to  explain  Beaumont  Trust.  Grey,  Hardwicke. 
Letters  until  12.45,  when  Canon  Hoare  on  Tunbridge  Wells 
Cemetery.  i,  luncheon,  Hoare,  Hutchinson;  1.30,  drove  to 
Charterhouse  where  we  discussed  the  scheme  for  its  alteration 
(Abp  York,  J.  Talbot,  Lords  Devon,  Clinton,  Brownlow  and 
Coleridge),  and  elected  Elwyn  Master  of  the  Charterhouse. 
3.30,  Meeting  for  Beaumont  Trust  at  Mansion  House,  Prince 
of  Wales  spoke,  I  seconded.  4.20,  House  of  Lords,  very  full. 
Lord  Granville  sold  all,  in  lieu  of  a  "  statement,"  moving  to 
adjourn  to  Thursday.  4.40,  Assyrian  Committee :  decided  on 
starting  new  move — not  out  till  6.  7.45,  dined  with  the  Cubitts 
at  Prince's  Gate — evening  party  after.  Large  Conservative  gather- 
ing— no  one  in  good  spirits,  but  all  bent  to  do  their  best.  Now 
12  midnight. 

Describing  what  had  taken  place  in  the  House  of  Lords 
that  afternoon,  the  Archbishop  writes  : — 

Breathless  anxiety  as  the  clock  struck  4.30 :  Lord  Granville 


58  A   CHURCH   PARTY  aet.  55 

with  his  smile  exchanged  for  a  serious  expression  stood  at  the 
table  and  said,  "  I  am  permitted  to  state  to  the  House  that  Lord 
Salisbury  has  accepted  office  and  undertaken  to  form  a  ministry, 
and  that  he  is  now  at  Windsor,  and  I  beg  further  to  state  "  (the 
anxiety  here  was  awful)  "  that,  with  his  full  concurrence,  I  shall " 
(and  now  you  might  really  hear  the  anxiety  through  the  perfect 
stillness),  "  at  the  conclusion  of  the  proceedings  of  to-day,  move 
that  this  house  do  adjourn,  as  usual,  till  Thursday," — first  silence, 
then  an  indignant  rustle,  then  a  general  low  laugh  all  over  the 
house,  and  then  Sir  William  Rose '  stood  up  and  said  "  that  the 
Gas  a?id  Water  Bill  be  now  read  a  second  time."  Gas  and 
Water,  could  anything  be  neater? 

On  the  24th  of  June  he  went  to  the  Handel  Festival 
at  the  Crystal  Palace.     He  says : — 

At  tea  Cardinal  Manning  advanced  to  me,  as  I  stood  with 
back  to  light,  held  out  his  hand  and  I  shook  it,  when  he  said, 
"I  beg  your  pardon,  I  thought  it  was  the  Abp  of  York."  He 
talked  pleasantly  about  the  Early  Closing  Movement.  But  as 
I  had  gone  down  to  tea  with  Aberdeen,  and  Manning  came  and 
stood  thus  over  me — we  presently  all  three  were  at  talk  together, 
viz.  the  Lord  High  Commissioner  of  the  Presbyterian  Body,  this 
papal  invader,  and  I — a  very  odd  triple  conjunction.  Drummond 
was  mth  us  too. 

On  the  30th  of  June  the  Archbishop  made  a  memorable 
speech  at  his  Diocesan  Conference.  He  said,  "  It  will  not 
be  by  her  own  act,  her  spontaneity,  that  the  Church  will 
be  formed  into  a  political  party.,..  The  Church  does  not 
desire  to  enter  into  the  political  arena ;  but  circumstances 
might  arise  which  would  compel  her  to  do  so,  and  then 
suddenly  she  would  find  herself  a  vast  political  power. 
The  flake  of  gold  becomes  a  current  coin  with  image  and 
superscription  at  one  blow,  and  though  the  Church  might 
desire  to  avoid  the  contingency  yet  it  might  be  forced 
upon  her."  He  went  on  to  say  that  it  would  not,  as  in 
other  countries,  become  a  mere  "clerical"  party,  but  that 

1  K.C.B.,  Clerk  of  the  Parliament,  d.  i88^. 


i885  PALL   MALL   GAZETTE  59 

the  union  of  the  laity  with  the  clergy  of  the  English  Church 
was  deep-seated.  This  utterance  was  received  with  con- 
siderable respect,  and  the  courage  of  the  Archbishop — 
"  a  courage  to  which  in  ecclesiastical  circles  we  had  grown 
unaccustomed" — was  loudly  praised. 

In  July  appeared  certain  articles  under  the  title  of 
"  The  Report  of  our  Secret  Commission  "  in  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  dealing  with  the  immoral  traffic  in  young  girls. 
The  truth  of  the  statements  made  was  widely  questioned, 
and  eventually  the  Archbishop  consented  to  sit  on  a 
commission  of  enquiry  together  with  the  Bishop  of  London, 
Cardinal  Manning,  Mr  Samuel  Morley  and  Mr  (now  Sir) 
R.  T.  Reid,  Q.C.,  and  sift  the  evidence.  The  Commission 
met  in  the  Venetian  Parlour  of  the  Mansion  House,  and  on 
the  29th  of  July  published  an  award  that  the  statements  were 
substantially  true.  My  father  was  very  much  depressed  by 
a  task  which  was  peculiarly  repugnant  to  him,  and  he  after- 
wards came  to  think  that  he  had  much  better  have  refused 
to  act  in  the  matter.  He  never  mentioned  the  subject 
without  a  peculiar  horror,  and  a  statement  that  he  had 
been  drawn  into  it  against  his  better  judgment,  and 
regretted  his  action  very  much. 

In  Aug-ust  he  went  to  Switzerland  for  a  much  needed 
holiday.  He  tried  as  far  as  possible  to  travel  incognito, 
and  was  much  vexed,  I  remember,  at  Visp  at  the  evening 
table  d'hote  by  a  voluble  clergyman  who  shouted  to  him 
as  "Your  Grace"  down  the  length  of  a  long  table.  He 
writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Saturday,  Aug.  \^th. — At  Sion,  with  its  wreck  of  grandeur,  the 
Archbishop  was  on  the  platform,  a  venerable  big  old  man  with 
a  green  cord  round  his  hat  and  a  purple  cincture  round  his  waist. 
A  priest  and  a  peasant  farmer  who  were  with  him  kissed  his  hand 
and  knelt  to  him. 

This  perhaps  is  the  fruit  of  the  great  times  when  the  Abp  hired 
out  his  Valais  farmers'  sons  for  soldiers  to  whatever  cause  wished 


6o  SWITZERLAND  aet.  56 

to  have  them.     And  since  then  the  teaching  of  his  church  has 
grown  more  earthly,  even  whilst  lives  have  become  more  pure. 

Where  do  they  stand?  Is  it  a  penance?  Is  it  a  captivity? 
Is  it  a  slope  to  still  further  decHne  and  loss?  A  nothing?  Is 
there  to  be  a  revival?  Is  there  to  be  a  better  system  of  Chris- 
tianity? And  where  do  we  stand  in  England?  Are  the  efforts 
and  toils  and  prayers  of  half  a  century  to  avail  to  leaven  us  from 
the  century  before  that  ?  Is  Unchristianity  and  Antichristianity  to 
invade  us  yet  more — or  can  we  with  the  Cross  and  with  the  Truth 
of  the  Cross  yet  overcome?  Not  we.  Will  God  use  us  and 
our  sons? 

His  observation  of  Nature  was  always  acute ;  he  went 
on  to  Zermatt  and  writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Saturday,  Sept.  12th. — -There  are  very  few  birds — rooks  have 
a  melodious  thin  note,  not  at  all  like  a  caw.  Nutcrackers  are 
delightful  round  black  balls  as  big  as  wood-pigeons ;  a  white 
line  shows  on  their  tails  spread  in  flight.  They  are  saucy  little 
fellows  and  like  to  sit  on  the  top  sprays  of  the  pines  below  us  for  a 
good  stare.  They  make  a  chip-chip  rather  like  a  jay.  We  hear 
the  marmots  whistle  in  the  lonelier  places.  The  squirrels  are 
black,  with  white  chests.  The  despised  field  gentian  lingers  in 
warm  corners— all  the  other  flowers  but  the  harebells  are  gone 
— there  are  glorious  scarlet  patches  everywhere  of  changed  leaves, 
and  the  stonecrop  lingers  in  flower  near  warm  rills.  The  London 
Pride  has  died  down  since  we  came.  In  walking  the  glaciers 
it  is  quite  affecting  to  have  a  bee  settle  on  one's  bonnet  or  one's 
coat  so  often — they  must  feel  the  times  are  hard.  There  are 
a  good  many  hawks — perhaps  there  would  be  small  birds  but 
for  this. 

At  Zermatt  my  younger  sister  had  an  illness,  which 
the  hotel-keeper,  whom  we  took  into  our  confidence, 
insisted  on  our  keeping  secret,  saying  that  the  guests 
would  be  alarmed,  if  they  supposed  she  was  seriously  ill. 
I  recollect  my  father's  horror  at  the  first  Sunday  Service 
which  we  attended  when  the  prayers  of  the  congregation 
were  asked  for  "Miss  Pontifex,"  which  he  supposed  at  first 
to  be  a  delicate  way  of  veiling  my  sister's  identity.     It 


i885  AUDINGTON   CHAPEL  6i 

turned  out,  of  course,  to  refer  to  an  English  lady  who  was 
ill  in  another  hotel. 

Although  this  holiday  was  not  a  very  refreshing  one, 
his  bodily  vigour  was  great ;  he  ascended,  from  the  Riffel 
Alp  Hotel,  the  Cima  di  Jazzi  with  Canon  Hutchinson, 
formerly  a  well-known  Alpine  climber.  It  is  true  that 
there  is  no  record  of  the  expedition  having  ever  taken  a 
longer  time  to  accomplish  :  but  my  father  was  by  no  means 
light  of  frame  and  had  lived  an  exhausting  and  sedentary 
life  for  some  years.    He  enjoyed  the  expedition  immensely. 

At  the  end  of  September  he  wrote  to  Canon  Wickenden, 
who  had  previously  given  him  three  stained  glass  windows 
for  Addington  Chapel  and  now  contributed  a  fresco : — 

Denbies,  Dorking. 

Oct  \th,  1885. 
Dearest  Fred, 

The  windows  and  the  hangings  etc.  in  our  chapel  at 
Addington  are  just  of  that  soft  quiet  tone  and  general  reverent 
look  about  which  we  have  so  often  talked  and  which  is  so  difificult 
to  gain.  The  parquetry  helps  it  wonderfully.  Your  windows  and 
fresco  are  the  keynotes  as  well  as  the  beauty  and  distinguishing 
character  of  the  place.  So  your  seal  is  set  on  the  Archbishops 
of  Canterbury  for  ever  if  it  please  God  to  preserve  their  seat. 
But  I  don't  like  the  uneasy  air  and  sound  of  things — and  I 
wish  the  present  Archbishop  was  someone  who  understood  the 
questions  at  issue.  We  are  with  you,  you  know,  dearest  friend 
of  friends,  in  your  pain  and  uneasiness  by  our  prayers  and 
thoughts  and  affection  always.  It  is  such  a  joy  to  me  that  you 
have  made  every  one  of  our  children  so  know  and  love  you — it 
makes  our  ancient  friendship  so  young  to  hear  them  talk  of  you 
day  by  day.     God  bless  and  keep  and  be  gracious  to  you. 

Your  most  loving, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  October  15th  he  went  to  Lampeter  and  laid  the 
foundation  stone  of  the  new  buildings  of  St  David's  College 
there. 


62  THE   "  SEVEN   GIFTS  "  aet.  56 

On  the  20th  October  he  attended  the  unveiHng  of  the 
monument  of  Archbishop  Tait  in  Canterbury,  close  to 
the  spot  where,  almost  exactly  eleven  years  afterwards, 
his  own  body  lay  waiting  for  its  last  repose.  He  spoke 
very  feelingly  of  the  "purity,  beauty  and  peace  of  the 
Archbishop's  domestic  life." 

In  the  same  month  he  held  his  Visitation  of  the  Diocese; 
his  charge  was  afterwards  published  under  the  title  of  the 
"Seven  Gifts."  It  was  an  utterance  remarkable  not  only  for 
its  fundamental  conception,  but  for  its  comprehensiveness, 
its  hopefulness  and  brightness. 

In  December  he  delivered  an  interesting  address  on 
"  Municipalities"  in  his  capacity  as  President  for  that  year 
of  the  Birmingham  and  Midland  Institute.  How  he  found 
the  time  to  evolve  so  complicated  a  historical  survey  of 
the  subject  it  is  difficult  to  divine. 

In  November  he  had  written  in  his  Diary  a  long  survey 
of  the  political  condition  of  the  country  with  reference  to  the 
pending  elections,  touching  on  reforms  which  had  already 
long  been  in  prospect,  and  indicating  the  possibility  of  a 
defensive  movement  of  the  Church,  which  was  to  bear  fruit 
later  in  a  large  organisation  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge 
about  the  position  and  history  of  the  Church. 

It  may  be  noted  that  it  was  about  this  time  that  my 
father's  Parliamentary  activity  began.  For  the  next  ten 
years  which  remained  to  him  of  life,  he  never  ceased  to 
press  forward  in  Parliament  bills  for  the  reform  of  patronage 
and  for  the  provision  of  means  by  which  the  Church  might 
rid  herself  of  the  scandal  of  evil-living  ministers. 

November — Election.  When  the  field  is  so  large  it  is  very 
difficult  to  be  sure  that  what  one  sees  is  a  correct  sample  of  the 
whole — or  that  what  one  conceives  to  be  the  whole  is  really  so. 
But  I  think  that  this  is  true :  there  was  little  or  no  anxiety  about 
the  Church's  posidon  until  Mr  Gladstone  made  mendon  of  dis- 
establishment in  his  address,  merely  stating  that  it  was  far  off,  the 


i885  POLITICAL   SURVEY  63 

question  not  ripe,  and  that  when  the  people  after  abundant  con- 
sideration should  come,  if  ever  they  did  come,  to  think  the  estab- 
lishment should  be  ended  it  would  have  to  be  done.  There  were 
no  expressions  of  reluctance.  Rather  an  implication  that  he  should 
execute  the  people's  will  himself  if  it  had  happened  to  come 
(which  it  would  not)  in  his  time.  This  caused  among  all  who 
revered  him  hitherto  as  a  churchman  the  greatest  surprise  and 
shame.  If  he  had  boldly  negatived  the  idea,  it  would  have  reassured 
every  one.  While  those  who  wished  for  it  could  not  have  com- 
plained if  it  was  true  that  under  any  circumstances  it  was  very 
distant.  Then  Chamberlain  without  any  circumlocution  spoke  of 
it  as  his  desire  and  as  very  near,  though  not  perhaps  within  the  next 
Session.  Then  came  out  "  The  Radical  Programme  "  preface  by 
Chamberlain  with  a  truculent  wolfish  imagining  the  whole  thing 
down  to  details,  and  claiming  it.  In  the  meantime  the  counter-feeling 
swept  far  and  wide  and  reached  something  of  intensity.  Chamber- 
lain went  to  stay  at  Hawarden,  and  thence  set  forth  on  his  political 
travels  declaring  that  he  had  not  meant  and  had  scarcely  said 
anything  of  the  kind.  Mr  Gladstone  also  felt  great  sorrow  at  the 
way  in  which  he  had  been  misunderstood  on  purpose  about  a 
thing  so  distant  and  visionary.  Lord  Salisbury  adroitly  pointed 
out  that  Mr  G.  had  once  described  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Irish  Church  as  "  in  the  dim  and  distant  future  "  and  that  within 
two  years  and  a  half  he  had  passed  the  measure  for  it.  It  will 
be  always  a  stain  on  the  Liberals  that,  the  order  of  events  being 
what  it  was,  they  everywhere  proclaimed  that  the  "Tories"  had 
got  up  the  alarm  about  "the  Church  in  danger." 

The  result  of  the  election,  when  the  boroughs  had  been  taken, 
with  its  conservative  majority,  appeared  to  everyone  a  settling  of 
the  question  as  to  what  the  feeling  in  the  country  was  about  the 
Church.  But  the  astonishment  all  round  was  great  when  it  turned 
out  that  the  agricultural  vote  was  so  preponderatingly  liberal. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  efforts  of  the  Liberationists,  the 
belief  instilled  into  the  peasant  mind  that  if  the  Church  were 
disestablished  they  should  gain  "something,"  and  also  the  un- 
popularity, not  undeserved  I  fear,  of  the  country  clergy  in  some 
regions,  have  acted  to  this  end.  The  accounts  of  many  parishes 
give  a  sad  picture  of  unspiritual,  selfish  clerical  life.  But  it  is  most 
to  be  observed  that  the  educated  intelligence  of  the  towns  has 
gone  the  other  way,  and  if  this  is  real,  then  every  day's  education  is 
educating  the  "  people  "  into  a  more  civilised  view  of  things.     In 


64  POLITICAL   SURVEY  aet.  56 

my  visitation  charges  I  uttered  because  I  felt  no  alarm.  What- 
ever comes,  the  Church  of  Christ  will  not  suffer — and  I  do  not 
think  that,  whatever  may  be  in  store,  there  are  any  sufficient  signs 
to  make  one  think  Mr  Gladstone  wrong  in  his  view.  What  is 
wrong,  irredeemably  wrong,  in  his  case  is  that  he  did  not  tell  his 
half-informed  followers  that  disestablishment  would  be  a  backward 
and  a  dangerous  step  for  the  State,  unjustifiable  and  unjust. 

But  one  thing  is  visible  gain  already.  The  attention  excited 
to  the  subject  will  make  the  Conservatives  feel  that  they  dare  no 
longer  oppose  the  reforms  which  the  Bishops  and  the  best  of  the 
clergy  and  the  largest  part  of  the  laity  of  the  Church  have  long 
desired  and  pressed  for.  The  very  hesitation  to  confess  all  that 
is  amiss  in  our  ways  and  works,  lejt  it  should  arouse  people  still 
more  against  us,  will  surely  now  come  to  an  end.  The  Conser- 
vatives threw  out  the  last  Patronage  reform  bill— but  they  will 
now  feel  that  they  injure  what  they  want  to  preserve.  And  that 
subject,  and  the  starvation  of  some  laborious  livings,  and  the 
exercise  of  some  control  by  the  laity  must  meet  with  more  atten- 
tion— we  shall  be  able,  I  trust,  with  this  wave  to  do  something. 
It  is  rather  of  bad  augury  that  Lord  Salisbury  has  made  political 
Church  Defence  a  watchword  (for  the  present)  with  his  party — 
and  the  effect  will  be  that  the  Liberals  will  be  afraid  of  meddling 
with  the  support  of  the  Church  lest  it  should  cause  any  doubt 
of  their  Liberalism. 


CHAPTER    II. 

PARLIAMENTARY   WORK. 

"  Audire  tnagtios  jam  videor  duces 
Non  indecoro  pulvere  sordidos."     HORACE. 

I  DO  not  propose  to  give  more  than  a  summary  of  the 
Archbishop's  ParHamentary  work.  It  was  not  congenial 
to  him  ;  he  was  convinced  of  the  importance  of  securing 
prompt  and  practical  Church  legislation,  but  the  Parlia- 
mentary methods  of  securing  it  were  distasteful  to  him. 
He  cared  deeply  and  anxiously  for  the  results  of  measures, 
but  he  was  not  a  good  Parliamentary  speaker,  and  he  had 
none  of  the  arts  of  the  Lobbyist.  Moreover  he  had  had  no 
apprenticeship.  He  entered  Parliament  for  the  first  time 
when  he  became  Archbishop,  at  the  age  of  fifty-three  :  for 
two  hundred  years  there  had  been  no  Archbishop  who  had 
not  previously  sat  as  Bishop.  In  the  House  of  Lords, 
I  think  it  may  be  said,  his  historical  sensitiveness, 
his  love  of  antiquity  and  tradition,  were  a  misfortune  to 
him.  The  atmosphere  seemed  to  overawe  him,  and  make 
him  ill  at  ease.  I  have  often  heard  him  speak  of  his  first 
days  in  the  House,  how  the  imperturbable  indifference,  the 
genial  consciousness  of  position,  the  amiable  toleration  of 
religion,  the  well-bred  contempt  for  enthusiasm  weighed 
his  spirits  down.  He  seldom  spoke  there  with  any  pleasure 
either  of  anticipation,    performance   or   recollection.     Yet 

B.  II.  5 


66  PARLIAMENTARY   WORK  aet.  54 

there  were  few  more  constant  attendants  at  the  sittings  of 
the  House,  and  the  increasing  familiarity  with  the  course  of 
affairs  gradually  gave  him  influence  and  won  him  respect 
among  those  whom  he  used  to  designate  as  Terrarum 
Dominos. 

Chancellor  Dibdin,  who  was  more  familiar  with  the 
Archbishop's  legal  and  parliamentary  work  in  his  later 
years  than  any  other  person,  and  whom  the  Archbishop 
consulted  on  most  measures  of  importance,  says  in  his 
Article  in  the  Quarterly^  (Oct.   1897): — 

When  there  was  a  sitting  of  the  House  of  Lords,  the  Arch- 
bishop was  generally  there.  He  did  his  utmost  to  get  his  suffragans 
to  bestow  more  time  on  their  Parliamentary  duties,  sometimes 
lamenting  that  the  English  Bishops,  however  much  they  were 
"  Bishops  of  their  dioceses,  were  not  so  much  Bishops  of  England  " 
^s  formerly.  The  little  robing-room  set  apart  for  the  two  Arch- 
bishops and  the  Bishop  of  London  was  often  used  for  interviews, 
especially  with  public  men  and  officials,  and  there,  too,  during 
the  session  the  Archbishop  sometimes  stayed  after  the  House 
had  risen,  discussing  matters  with  some  friend,  such  as  Bishop 
Temple,  his  trusted  colleague,  for  whom  the  Archbishop's  affec- 
tionate respect  of  earlier  years  never  varied,  although  their  relative 
positions  changed. 

I  give  the  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Bishop  Westcott 
after  his  speech  on  the  Sunday  opening  of  Museums : — 

Lambeth  Palace. 

22  March,  1884. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

I  had  to  speak  in  the  House  of  Lords  last  night.  It 
is  a  really  terrible  place  for  the  unaccustomed.  Frigid  impatience 
and  absolute  good  will,  combined  with  a  thorough  conviction 
of  the  infallibility  of  laymen  (if  not  too  religious)  on  all  sacred 

^  I  must  here  express  my  particular  thanks  to  Mr  John  Murray  and  to 
Chancellor  Dibdin  for  the  kind  permission  given  me  to  make  full  extracts 
from  this  masterly  Article. 


X883-1884  ECCLESIASTICAL  COURTS  67 

subjects,  are  the  tone,  morale  and  reason  of  the  House  as  a  living 
being.  My  whole  self-possession  departs,  and  ejection  from  the 
House  seems  the  best  thing  which  could  happen  to  one. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

The  first  piece  of  Parliamentary  drafting  that  he  did 
was  in  connection  with  Ecclesiastical  Courts.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  Archbishop  Tait,  after  the  acknowledged 
failure  of  the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Act — a  measure 
which,  as  Chancellor  Dibdin  says,  was  neither  framed  nor 
used  as  Archbishop  Tait  desired  it — proposed  in  March, 
1 88 1,  the  appointment  of  a  Royal  Commission  to  enquire 
into  the  constitution  and  working  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Courts.  Of  that  Commission  Bishop  Benson,  then  at  Truro, 
was  a  member,  and  attended  the  meetings  with  great  regu- 
larity.    On  Archbishop  Tait's  death  he  became  Chairman. 

Chancellor  Dibdin  says  : — 

The  Archbishop  drafted  what  he  called  the  "  Proem  "  to  the 
Report,  and  in  the  following  sentence  touched  characteristically 
the  governing  idea  of  his  Church  policy : — 

"  We  desire  to  point  out  that  throughout  our  scheme,  whenever 
existing  processes  are  shown  to  be  satisfactory  in  working,  or  when 
the  desuetude  of  old  ones  is  due  entirely  to  accidental  causes, 
we  have  sought  to  preserve  the  continuity  and  restore  the  vitality 
of  what  was  there  in  principle." 

The  Report  was  presented  in  August,  1883,  and  excited  a 
great  deal  of  comment  and  criticism.  It  was  on  the  whole  satis- 
factory to  High  Churchmen  and  certainly  did  something  to  soothe 
the  feeling  of  irritation  and  grievance  amongst  the  Ritualistic  party, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  because  its  historical  appendices,  written  by 
the  present  Bishop  of  Oxford,  seemed  to  justify  the  rejection  of 
Lord  Penzance  and  the  Privy  Council,  a  view  which  was  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  Lord  Penzance  himself  declined  to  sign  the  Report 
of  the  Commission.  Archbishop  Benson,  though  he  neither 
took  the  leading  part  in  the  work  of  research  which  Dr  Stubbs 
and  Dr  Westcott  fulfilled,  nor  influenced  the  substance  of  the 
recommendations  to  the  same  extent  as  Archbishop   Tait,   was 

5—2 


68  PARLIAMENTARY   WORK  aet.  54 

in  thorough  harmony  with  the  historical  views  on  which  the 
Report  was  founded,  and,  unlike  most  of  his  colleagues,  agreed 
without  reservation  to  the  Report.  In  the  winter  of  1884-5, 
a  Bill  was  prepared  under  the  eye  of  Archbishop  Benson,  to  give 
effect  to  some  of  the  Commission's  recommendations.  The 
Bishops,  however,  were  not  unanimous  on  the  subject,  and  the 
Archbishop,  following  his  policy  of  keeping  Churchmen  together, 
would  do  nothing  "  disunitedly,"  so  while  "  regretting  deeply  that 
there  should  be  no  legislation  after  all  the  preparation  for  it,"  he 
gave  up  the  idea  of  introducing  his  Bill  into  the  House  of  Lords. 
It  will  probably  now  be  admitted  that  there  was  too  much 
difference  of  opinion  both  inside  and  outside  the  Commission 
for  legislation  on  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts  to  have  had  much 
chance  of  success.  But  the  most  important  outcome  of  the 
Report  was  the  notable  support  it  gave  to  the  principle  that  the 
Church  of  England  is  in  regard  to  law  as  well  as  to  succession 
a  society  existing  with  effective  continuity  from  the  first  age  until 
now.  It  was,  perhaps,  the  first  official  negation  of  the  proposition, 
"  We  ought  not  to  go  behind  the  Reformation,"  formerly  so  often 
and  now  so  seldom  heard.  To  this  extent  the  Archbishop  and 
the  extreme  High  Church  party  were  in  agreement.  Both  refused 
to  regard  the  sixteenth  century  as  the  point  of  departure.  But 
the  difference  between  his  view  and  the  view  of  a  section  of  that 
party  lay  in  the  way  they  regarded  the  Reformation  itself.  While 
to  them  it  was  an  interruption  and  a  disaster,  or  at  the  best  "a 
limb  badly  set,"  the  Archbishop  was  as  strenuously  opposed  to 
this  denial  of  the  principle  of  continuity  as  the  other.  To  him 
"the  Reformation  was  a  ripe  and  long-prepared  and  matured 
movement  in  an  era  of  illumination,  the  greatest  event  in  Church 
history  since  the  fourth  century." 

The  Archbishop  himself  wrote  to  Sir  Arthur  Gordon 
a  long  letter  on  the  same  subject : — 

Lambeth  Palace. 

June  2nd,  1884. 

My  dear  Gordon, 

It  has  not  been  possible  for  me  to  give  you  any  real 
account  of  the  Ec.  Cts.  Comm.  Legislation—for  all  preHminary 
steps  in  this  old  country  are  taken  so  slowly  that  we  shall  seem 
to  you  scarcely  to  be  any  forwarder. 


i884  ECCLESIASTICAL  COURTS  69 

The  Prime  Minister^  was  of  course  very  friendly.  I  had 
much  correspondence  with  him  and  some  interviews.  One  thing 
was  clear — that  with  his  Cabinet  it  was  impossible  to  make  it  a 
Government  measure.  I  was  quite  clear  that  the  advice  I  received 
through  and  from  you  was  sound.  And  therefore  I  quite  deter- 
mined not  to  make  it  my  measure  without  promise  of  support  of 
some  real  kind.     None  such  was  forthcoming. 

Meantime  it  was  very  advisable  to  give  the  Church  and 
country  fresh  opportunity  for  discussion.  It  was  not  likely  that 
they  would  at  once  embrace  what  took  us  so  long  a  time  to  arrive 
at.  By  degrees  the  air  has  cleared,  and  now  the  only  opposition 
is  that  of  the  extreme  right,  who  won't  have  Lay  Judges,  and  of  the 
extreme  left,  who  won't  have  Bishops'  veto — if  they  can  help  it. 

Most  rational  people  now  see  that  it  is  not  unreasonable  that 
they  should  each  concede  their  bugbear  to  the  others.  Whether 
they  will  see  it  is  another  thing. 

Nothing  that  I  have  seen  alters  my  views.  It  was  not  very 
likely,  after  two  years'  hard  work  at  it.  We  shall  then  probably 
proceed  with  the  heads  of  a  Bill,  and  then  draft  it  during  the 
autumn,  and  next  session  bring  it  on; — if  (i)  I  can  prevail  on 
Mr  G.  to  give  it  really  fair  play,  (2)  and  this  Government  is 
more  disposed  to  do  so.  We  had  better  remain  as  we  are,  all 
alike  being  sick  and  tired  of  litigation,  than  rush  to  legislation 
and  have  the  weapon  wrested  from  us  and  turned  on  the  Church, 
as  the  last  measure  was. 

I  need  not  add  that  I  am  very  grateful  for  so  kind  a  letter 
of  such  friendship  and  such  good  counsel ;  to  all  I  assent  with  all 
earnestness  up  to  this  present  point  of  progress. 

Yours  most  sincerely, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

Mr  Dibdin  writes  : — 

Another  piece  of  Church  defence  which  Archbishop  Benson 
carried  through  with  success,  though  it  was  overshadowed  by  the 
larger  events  which  followed,  was  his  action  with  regard  to  the 
Local  Government  Bill,  which  passed  through  Parliament  during 
the  autumn  Session  of  1893-4.  It  is  at  least  probable  that  the 
Archbishop's  leadership  in  that  matter  saved  the  clergy,  or  a  large 
section  of  them,  from  committing  a  serious  mistake,  the  con- 
sequences of  which  would  not  have  been  transient.  The  Parish 
'  Mr  Gladstone. 


70 


PARISH    COUNCILS   BILL  aet.  63 


Councils  Bill,  as  it  was  then  called,  dealt  severely  with  existing 
parochial  institutions,  which  it  must  be  remembered  had  grown 
up  under  a  system  of  much  closer  union  between  Church  and 
State  than  now  survives.  Under  the  Bill  the  Churchwardens  and 
the  Vestry  were  to  lose  their  civil  status  and  no  longer  discharge 
their  civil  duties.  The  Incumbent  was  to  be  similarly  deprived 
of  his  old  power,  and  parochial  charities  were  to  be  removed  from 
ecclesiastical  control.  Amongst  parochial  charities  affected  by 
the  Bill  were  in  the  first  instance  included  some  institutions 
and  funds  which  in  origin  and  fact  belonged  to  the  Church,  and 
were  really  part  of  her  ordinary  parochial  machinery.  There  were 
two  dangers.  One  was  that  the  clergy,  especially  in  rural  parishes 
in  which  the  Bill  operated,  would  rush  into  an  unwise  opposition 
to  the  Bill,  and  put  themselves  in  antagonism  to  their  people, 
in  the  vain  endeavour  to  preserve  a  worn-out  regime  and  to 
prevent  the  natural  development  of  local  institutions.  The  other 
danger,  in  a  precisely  opposite  direction,  was  lest  a  desire  to 
support  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  cause  of  the  people  should 
lead  to  the  loss  of  parish  rooms  and  other  similar  institutions 
through  ignorance  of  the  effect  of  the  Bill.  The  Archbishop  was 
not  the  man  to  confound  the  interests  of  the  Church  with  such 
adventitious  incidents  as  the  civil  functions  of  vestries  and  church- 
wardens, and  he  accordingly  warmly  supported  the  creation  of 
parish  councils  and  the  transfer  to  them  of  powers  hitherto 
exercised  by  vestries.  On  the  other  hand  he  insisted  that  parish 
rooms  should  not  be  confiscated.  Not  only  did  Churchmen 
generally  follow  the  Archbishop's  lead,  but  the  Conservative  party 
in  Parliament  fought  the  Bill  on  his  lines,  with  the  result  that  after 
a  prolonged  struggle,  and  a  threatened  collision  between  the  two 
Houses,  the  Bill  passed  into  law  with  most  of  the  substantial 
modifications  the  Archbishop  asked  for.  The  importance  of  the 
Archbishop's  wise  moderation  in  this  matter  was  shown  by  the  eager 
attempts  made  in  the  Radical  press  to  misrepresent  the  action  of 
the  Bishops.  The  Bishops  and  other  Churchmen  protested  against 
the  village  school-room  being  handed  over  as  a  meeting-place  for 
the  parish  council  when  it  was  wanted  for  any  of  its  primary 
purposes,  e.g.  a  night-school.  But  this  was  made  the  excuse  for 
a  cry  which  was  at  once  raised,  that  the  Bishops  were  driving  the 
parish  council  to  the  pubUc-house ;  and  even  to  this  day  it  is 
sometimes  alleged  on  Liberationist  platforms,  that  the  Bishops 
voted  for  holding  parish  meetings  in  public-houses. 


i886  TITHE   AND    GLEBE    BILLS  71 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  the  present 
Bishop  of  Winchester  (Dec.  nth,  1886)  gives  the  Arch- 
bishop's view  as  to  the  prospects  of  Church  progress,  and 
the  necessity  of  regarding  legislation  in  Church  matters  as 
only  a  very  small  side  of  Church  development. 

(Govt.  Bills.)  Acts  of  Parliament  on  Tithe'  and  Glebe  are 
apparently  preparing  without  any  consultation  whatever  with  any 
Church  authorities ;  not  even  the  Commissioners.  One  is  not 
quite  sure  whether  those  who  are  passionately,  and  not  politically, 
enamoured  of  Christ's  Church,  may  not  think  it  better  for  her 
to  leap  into  many  waters,  than  be  in  the  next  few  years  bound 
and  crippled  if  she  clings  to  land.  And  the  Conservatives  must 
not  think  that  they  are  so  essential  to  the  Church  that  they  may 
behave  to  her  far  worse  than  any  others  do.  The  proposal  to  sell 
Glebe  Lands  when  they  are  at  the  lowest  value  for  allotments 
is  an  attempt  at  pleasing  Socialists  a  little  too  far,  and  as  I  have 
said  before  to  you,  I  know  what  will  be  the  politics  of  five-sixths 
of  the  clergy  if  they  are  delivered  from  all  sympathy  with  land. 

I  cannot  conceive  how  next  "term"  is  to  get  over  without  a 
deadlock  in  my  work.  The  multitude  and  magnitude  of  businesses 
which  are  beginning  to  crowd  about  the  Home  Church  already 
require  a  small  strong  Council  for  the  preparation  and  proposal 
of  lines  to  be  followed.  It  is  getting  beyond  any  power  (not  only 
mine,  quam  suo  quam  etc.)  because  it  is  getting  beyond  any  time 
which  any  one  can  have. 

But  altogether  with  the  tiny  clouds  like  many  men's  hands 
which  are  rising  from  the  sea,  it  is  interesting  to  observe  how 
while  the  Church  is  losing  ground  with  Crown  and  Cabinets  and 
Parliament,  she  is  conciliating  and  gaining  ground  with  the  people, 
— slowly  and  ov  fji.€Ta  TrapaTrjprja-eu)^^  we  may  almost  say,  but  I  think 
really.  And  this  too  just  at  the  moment  when  the  relations  of 
the  Colonies  to  the  Church,  and  of  Colonial  Churches  to  home, 

^  This  probably  refers  not  to  the  Extraordinary  Tithe  Bill  of  1886  but  to 
one  of  the  general  Tithe  Bills  of  the  Government,  possibly  that  of  1888.  There 
is  scarcely  any  connection  between  Extraordinary  Tithe,  which  was  an  arbitrary 
impost  placed  on  the  produce  of  hop  and  other  gardens,  and  ordinary  Tithe. 
Extraordinary  Tithe  became  payable  as  a  fresh  and  extra  tax  whenever  land  was 
turned  into  (say)  a  hop-garden.  The  object  of  the  Act  was  to  give  a  rent-charge 
of  fixed  amount  instead  of  the  existing  Extraordinary  Tithe,  and  to  prevent  the 
creation  of  any  new  Extraordinary  Tithe. 

'  "Not  with  observation,"  St  Luke  xvii.  20. 


72  PARLIAMENTARY   WORK  aet.  56-57 

are  moving  forward  and  not  backward ;  one  is  just  able  to  say 
that  if  not  more.  But  all  this  only  makes  ■jrpo/SovXoi'^  more  essential. 
They  cannot  be  Bishops  on/y.  There  are  not  the  Bishops,  and 
if  there  were  they  wouldn't  tie  themselves. 

I  don't  quite  know  why  I  have  written  you  all  this.  I  have 
written  on.  It  scarcely  any  of  it  wants  the  ieas/  answer.  And 
at  any  rate  do  not  write  a  soothing  answer. 

Chancellor  Dibdin  gives  the  following  interesting  survey 
of  the  Archbishop's  chief  measures  : — 

No  Archbishop  in  modern  times  has  identified  himself  so 
markedly  and  so  persistently  with  attempts  to  obtain  ecclesiastical 
reforms  through  the  action  of  Parliament  as  Dr  Benson.  From 
1886  till  his  death  in  1896,  he  never  ceased  to  be  at  work  on 
Church  Bills,  either  in  the  way  of  preparation  or  in  Convocation 
or  in  Parliament  itself.  Efforts  for  Church  Reform  were  made, 
we  need  hardly  say,  before  the  late  Archbishop's  time,  but  the 
adoption  of  what  may  be  called  a  policy  in  accordance  with  which 
Churchmen,  headed  by  the  Bishops,  go  on  year  after  year  laying 
their  needs  before  successive  Governments  and  claiming  legislative 
help,  dates  from  the  Dissolution  in  the  autumn  of  1885,  when 
Mr  Gladstone  having  resigned,  Lord  Salisbury  took  ofifice,  though 
in  a  minority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  went  to  the  country. 
The  prospects  of  the  Conservative  party  were  not  at  that  time 
very  bright.  They  had  nothing  better  than  criticism  of  their 
opponents  to  offer  to  the  new  electorate,  remodelled  and  re- 
enforced  by  the  Reform  Act  of  1884.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Liberal  Party  were  still  united.  Mr  Gladstone  had  not  announced 
his  conversion  to  Home  Rule,  and  it  was  not  even  suspected  by 
the  public.  But  the  issue  under  the  auspices  of  Mr  Chamberlain 
of  the  "Radical  Programme,"  in  which  "Religious  Equality"  was 
a  prominent  feature,  and  the  discovery  that  a  large  majority  of 
Liberal  Candidates  were  more  or  less  pledged  to  support  Dis- 
establishment, introduced  a  fresh  element  which  swiftly  altered  the 
situation.  Churchmen  were  up  in  arms  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other.  There  was  a  great  agitation,  the  formidable 
effects  of  which,  foreseen  by  Mr  Gladstone  in  his  almost  passion- 
ate protests  to  the  electors  that  the  Church  was  not  in  any  danger, 
were  obvious  in  the  Returns.  Instead  of  a  great  Liberal  victory, 
it  was  practically  a  drawn  battle.     Mr  Gladstone  resumed  office, 

1  At  Athens  and  in  other  Greek  States,  the  7rp6/3oi;Xot  were  a  Provisional 
Committee  to  examine  legislative  measures  before  they  were  proposed  to  the 
people. 


i886  HOUSE   OF   LAYMEN  73 

but  was  dependent  for  a  working  majority  on  Mr  Parnell's 
support. . . . 

The  moment  was  one  of  new  departure  also  in  ecclesiastical 
politics.  Church  matters  had  acquired  a  greatly  quickened 
interest  in  the  country,  and  while  on  the  one  hand  Disestablish- 
ment by  becoming  a  current  question  seemed  not  unnaturally 
to  her  enemies  to  have  been  brought  much  nearer,  on  the 
other  the  Church's  friends  saw  in  the  attitude  of  the  public 
mind  an  opportunity  to  press  forward  the  internal  reforms 
which  the  Church  had  long  needed.  On  December  12th,  1885, 
a  memorial,  promoted  by  the  Archbishop's  intimate  friend  the 
present  Bishop  of  Durham  and  signed  by  most  of  the  leading 
resident  members  of  the  Senate  of  Cambridge  University,  was 
presented  to  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  expressing  belief 
that  "the  Church  of  England  has  long  suffered  serious  injury 
from  the  postponement  of  necessary  reforms,"  and  urging  im- 
mediate action  as  to  Patronage,  Redistribution  of  Clerical 
Revenues,  and  Clergy  Discipline,  while  the  "most  urgently 
needed"  reform  of  any  was  stated  to  be  "the  admission  of 
laymen  of  all  classes  who  are  bond  fide  Churchmen  to  a  sub- 
stantial share  in  the  control  of  Church  affairs."  There  were 
numberless  other  resolutions,  memorials,  petitions,  letters,  and 
speeches  to  the  same  effect,  but  the  Cambridge  address  was 
probably  the  earliest  and  certainly  the  most  influential  of  them 
all.  Archbishop  Benson  readily  accepted  the  burden  of  leader- 
ship. In  February,  1886,  he  formally  opened  the  House  of 
Laymen,  which  after  much  consideration  and  at  the  request  of 
Convocation  he  called  into  existence,  as  an  attempt  to  supplement 
the  clerical  Convocations  and  to  form  a  consultative  body  of  lay 
Churchmen  drawn  by  a  system  of  election  from  each  diocese  of 
the  province.  In  a  carefully  weighed  address  he  stated  both  the 
need  and  the  difficulty  of  the  Reform  of  Convocation,  and  of 
dealing  with  "  the  most  important,  historically,  of  all  questions  of 
Church  order,  namely  those  which  relate  to  the  voice  of  the  laity 
in  the  controlling  of  Church  affairs,  whether  for  the  larger  or  the 
smaller  areas  of  administration."  He  pointed  out  that  in  calling 
together  the  House  of  Laymen  he  was,  perhaps,  as  far  as  then 
practically  possible,  making  "  some  initiation  "  of  a  central  organi- 
zation of  lay  power. 

He  announced  that  he  proposed  forthwith  to  submit  to 
Convocation  and  to  the  House  of  Laymen  a  Bill  for  the  reform 


74  PARLIAMENTARY   WORK  aet.  56-57 

of  Church  Patronage  with  a  view  to  its  early  introduction  into 
Parliament.  This  was  the  Archbishop's  Patronage  Bill  of  1886, 
on  which  he  spent  a  very  large  amount  of  time  and  labour, 
seeking  and  obtaining  assistance  in  many  different  quarters, 
especially  from  the  great  lawyers  in  both  Houses.  There  is  one 
name  which  it  seems  right  to  mention  in  reference  to  this  and 
almost  all  other  similar  work  of  the  Archbishop,  that  of  the  late 
Lord  Selborne,  on  whose  judgment  he  placed  great  reliance  and 
to  whose  help  he  was  profoundly  indebted.  This  Bill,  which  in 
the  Archbishop's  opinion  was  the  best  of  the  many  Patronage 
Bills,  before  and  since,  abolished  the  traffic  in  Livings  by  making 
all  sales  of  Church  patronage  invalid  unless  made  to,  or  with  the 
approval  of  a  Patronage  Board  constituted  on  representative  lines 
by  the  Bill.  The  Bill,  introduced  into  the  Lords  by  the  Arch- 
bishop himself,  was  well  received.  It  passed  successfully  through 
a  Select  Committee  of  which  the  Archbishop  was  Chairman,  but 
was  never  considered  in  the  Commons,  owing  partly  to  the 
Dissolution  which  followed  Mr  Gladstone's  defeat  on  the  second 
reading  of  his  first  Home  Rule  Bill.  In  1887  the  Archbishop 
introduced  another  Patronage  Bill,  which  differed  materially 
(especially  as  altered  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  suggestion 
of  Lord  Salisbury)  from  the  earlier  Bill.  It  was  no  longer  sought 
virtually  to  abolish  sales  by  restricting  the  class  of  possible  pur- 
chasers within  narrow  and  jealously  guarded  limits,  but  to  allow 
sales  as  freely  as  before,  only  subject  to  the  supervision,  by 
authorized  persons,  of  every  transaction.  Patronage  Boards 
disappeared  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  devising  a  satisfactory 
constitution  for  them,  and  the  prohibition  of  sales  was  given  up 
on  account  of  the  compensation  question  which  it  obviously 
raised,  and  as  to  which  no  practical  solution  was  offered. 

On  April  12th,  1887,  the  Archbishop  writes: — 

My  Patronage  Bill  has  passed  the  House  of  Lords.  And 
Salisbury  has  promised  me  to  make  it  a  Government  measure  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  If  it  passes  it  will  certainly  have  done 
much  to  extirpate  the  worst  evils  connected  with  our  advowson 
system  and  to  leave  the  great  undeniable  benefits  intact  which 
flow  from  so  much  patronage  being  in  the  hands  of  the  laity. 
The  Bill  as  I  introduced  it  this  year  had  a  council  of  assistants 
to  the  Bishops  whose  functions  were  threefold,  to  examine  and 
approve   every   transfer   of  an   advowson,    to   examine   genuine- 


I886-I887  PATRONAGE    BILLS  75 

ness  of  each  presentation,  and  to  receive  patronage  of  advowsons 
given  them.  This  council  was  to  be  elected  in  a  way  tedious  to 
describe,  as  rules  of  cricket  or  lawn  tennis  are,  but  perfectly  easy 
and  simple  in  the  working — simpler  than  the  ordinary  election  to 
a  diocesan  conference.  This  election  Lord  Salisbury  cut  away  by 
amendments,  and  also  left  the  council  only  the  function  of  ex- 
amining and  certifying  honesty  of  transfer  of  advowsons.  For 
election  he  substitutes  nomination  of  two  lay  members  by  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Diocese.     All  else  remains. 

Now  the  amusing  thing  is  that  all  the  newspapers  (I  think 
without  exception)  are  chaffing  "the  Bishops"  and  me  for  our 
council  and  our  elections.  The  Spectator,  that  accurate  and  good- 
tempered  organ  of  itself,  asks  why  the  Bishops  invented,  and  why 
they  so  unresistingly  suffered  the  excision  of,  those  provisions. 
"  It  must  be,"  says  it,  "  because  they  had  an  ideal  layman  before 
their  eyes  whom  they  thought  to  propitiate — then  comes  the  real 
layman  and  clears  away  all  this  episcopal  nonsense,  even  Lord 
Salisbury." 

The  Spectator  adds,  "the  Bill  will  be  called  the  Archbishop's 
and  will  be  Lord  Salisbury's."  The  House  having  really  amused 
itself  first  by  adding  to  it  and  then  cutting  out  the  additions. 

The  House  of  Lords  expressed  the  utmost  confidence  in 
Bishops,  and  has  certainly  largely  increased  their  powers — leaving 
it  for  them  to  exercise  their  discretion  as  to  accepting  presentees, 
which  they  were  quite  willing  to  share  with  the  Council.  The 
gains  of  the  Bill  are  great,  though  how  long  the  confidence  in 
Prelates  will  last  or  why  it  suddenly  arose,  I  am  not  sure.  Lord 
Salisbury  thinks  that  the  "Clerical  agent"  will  be  extinct.  But 
resources  of  cheating  are  intartssable\ 

Mr  Dibdin  continues  : — 

Again  the  Patronage  Bill  fell  to  the  ground  between  Lords 

^  On  this  Bill  Bishop  (afterwards  Archbishop)  Magee  wrote  : — 
''March  5/A,  1887.  The  great  question  is  about  the  passing  of  the  Church 
Patronage  Bill.  The  Abp  has  overloaded  it  with  a  number  of  complicated  and 
rather  fantastic  provisions  for  a  great  Diocesan  Council  of  Presentations,  none 
of  which  I  ever  saw  or  heard  of  until  now,  and  has  poorly  stated  his  reasons 
for  so  doing. 

"These  damaged  the  Bill  and  him  and  us  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lords.  I  did 
not  like  to  throw  him  over  publicly  and  totally,  but  I  did  disparage  the  Council 
and  intimated  that  I  cared  little  about  it.  This  was  all  omitted  in  the  Times 
report.  So  /  am  held  responsible  for  his  niaiseries.  So  history  is  made." 
{Life  of  Abp  Magee) 


76  PARLIAMENTARY   WORK  aet.  59 

and  Commons,  and  for  a  few  years,  until  1893,  was  not  again 
introduced.  Its  place  was  taken  by  the  Clergy  Discipline  Bill,  to 
which  the  Archbishop  applied  himself  with  equal  zeal,  and  was 
rewarded  with  better  success  in  1891  and  1892  \  The  Arch- 
bishop himself  piloted  the  Bill  through  the  Lords,  and  it  was 
made  a  Government  measure  in  the  Commons,  and,  with  the 
powerful  personal  assistance  of  Mr  Gladstone,  was  passed  in  the 
teeth  of  much  factious  opposition  from  a  few  Welsh  Liberationist 
members.  The  Act,  which  has  now  been  in  operation  five  years, 
has  fully  answered  the  expectations  of  its  promoters. 

The  following  letters,  relating  to  the  Clergy  Discipline 
Bill,  will  give  a  good  instance  of  the  Archbishop's  unwearied 
attempts  to  obtain  satisfactory  Church  legislation  :  they 
are  selected  from  a  large  number  of  similar  letters,  and 
may  be  held  to  be  fairly  typical. 

The  Bill  had,  in  spite  of  some  opposition,  been  carried 
through  the  House  of  Lords  in  1888. 

To  the  Rt  Hon.    IV.  H.  Smith. 

Undated,  but  about  1888. 
My  dear  Mr  Smith, 

There  are  two  matters  on  which  I  hope  I  may  be 
allowed  to  write  to  you  as  being  of  great  importance.  I  would 
not  trouble  you  with  them  if  they  were  not,  and  you  will  not 
misunderstand  me  if  I  say  that  the  constant  communications  I 
receive  show  that  they  are  important  in  many  directions. 

The  first  is  the  Clergy  Discipline  Bill.  I  trust  we  may  rely 
still  on  your  intention  to  take  it  through  the  House  of  Commons 
this  year.  It  is,  as  you  are  aware,  no  individual  scheme.  It  is 
the  result  of  discussion  after  discussion  of  the  most  qualified  bodies 
of  persons  on  the  Moral  part  of  the  Report  of  1883  of  the  Com- 
mission which  had  sat  for  two  years,  and  was  itself  the  outcome 
of  an  immense  amount  of  feeling  and  discussion — feeling  which 
is  rising  still. 

Both  Church  parties  acquiesce  in  the  Bill.     It  was  strongly 

^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Archbishop  Magee,  writing  on  Feb.  ^Sth, 
1 89 1,  says:— "I  had  a  pleasant  little  dinner  at  Lambeth  yesterday  and  most 
pleasant  talk  with  Cantuar  on  matters  archiepiscopal.  He  still  evidently  leans 
on  me  to  do  his  fighting  in  the  House  of  Lords.  I  will  help  him,  but  he  must 
fight  for  his  own  hand  too."     {Life  of  Abp  Magee,  p.  305.) 


i888  CLERGY    DISCIPLINE    BILL  77 

advocated  on  both  sides  of  the  House.  The  Press  supports  it. 
Mr  Gladstone  will  give  all  the  support  he  can.  Mr  lUingworth 
has  told  Lord  Herschell  that  he  will  not  hinder  it,  confined  as 
it  is  to  morals. 

For  the  good  of  the  Church  it  is  simply  vital.  The  cases 
it  would  affect  may  not  be  many,  but  they  are  inotistrous  and  they 
supply  endless  material  to  our  worst  adversaries,  and  are  a  grievous 
offence  to  the  best  dissenters. 

The  want  of  such  discipline  is  ruinous  within. 

The  Church  has  really  relied  on  this  Government  to  "  support 
the  Church "  as  we  were  assured,  and  above  all  asks  to  be 
supported  in  getting  rid  of  evils  within.  You  recognise,  I  am 
sure,  what  constant  postponements  have  attended  the  really  vital 
Church  measures. 

I  ask  for  the  Clergy  Discipline  Bill  now  rather  than  the  Church 
Patronage  Bill,  if  we  cannot  have  both  (though  the  latter  has 
waited  longest,  and  though  both  are  in  relief  of  abuses,  and  both 
pressing),  because  the  Church  Discipline  Bill  has  been  through 
the  House  of  Lords  this  session. 

It  has  long  been  said  that  the  Church  is  safe  if  she  has  ten 
years  to  reform  abuses.  The  years  are  passing.  United  with  the 
State  she  cannot  get  rid  of  some  abuses  without  assistance.  Those 
which  she  can  deal  with  alone  are  (you  will  admit)  disappearing. 
And  as  to  the  others  I  trust  I  am  not  mistaken  in  building  on 
the  assistance  which  alone  is  effective  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  other  question  concerns  Tithe  Bills — which  I  thankfully 
hear  are  not  to  be  postponed.  They  are  quite  as  necessary  as 
ever.  The  distress  of  the  clergy  increases.  The  legal  difficulties 
are  greater  than  those  due  to  violence.  And  may  I  add  that 
unless  iu  is  made  compulsory  on  Rate-collectors  to  give  informa- 
tion as  to  who  owns  land,  the  transference  of  the  obligation  to 
owners  will  be  of  little  service.  The  Clergy  cannot  ascertain 
them,  and  the  Collectors  are  the  only  officials  who  know  them. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir, 

Most  truly  yours, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

This  attempt  was  not  successful.  The  Archbishop 
withdrew  the  Bill  according  to  advice  as  there  was  no 
chance  of  passing  it.     In  1890  the  Bill  came  on  again  in 


78  CLERGY   DISCIPLINE   BILL  aet.  6i 

the  House  of  Lords,  but  was  withdrawn  as  the  pressure  of 
business  gave  it  no  chance  of  passing. 

On  June  30th,  1890,  he  writes: — 

To-day  all  being  agreed  that  to  pass  it  this  year  is  hopeless  I 
withdrew  my  Clergy  DiscipHne  Bill.  Since  February  Mr  Smith 
has  kept  on  assuring  me  that  the  Government  will  do  their  best  to 
pass  it.  Last  time,  three  weeks  ago,  "  Don't  be  anxious.  The 
Government  has  said  it  will  stand  by  the  Bill,  and  we  mean  to 
take  it  through."  Now,  "not  a  chance."  Thus  year  after  year  is 
our  time  wasted.  Selborne,  Temple,  Herschell,  Thring,  Jeune, 
and  now  Grimthorpe  and  Abp  of  York  have  given  me  abundance 
of  time  and  consideration.  Just  four  months  since  we  began  our 
sittings.  Grimthorpe  agrees  to  all,  York  differs  in  only  one  minor 
point — all  this  has  been  completely  successful  and  we  are  thrown 
over  a  third  time.  What  has  this  Government  done  in  pursuance 
of  its  promise  to  "  stand  by  the  Church  they  love  "  ?  They  have 
passed  the  Extraordinary  Tithe*  robbing  many  Clergy  of  one-third 
of  their  incomes.  That  is  all :  have  blocked  the  Patronage  Bill, 
the  Discipline  Bill  in  three  forms,  and  dare  not  pass  the  Tithe 
Bill. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  at  the  same  time 

he  wrote  : — 

June  30. 

I  did  not  feel  it  would  be  generous  to  W.  H.  Smith  to  say  it 
(that  the  Government  had  encouraged  the  Archbishop  to  think 
the  Bill  would  pass),  for  he  has  done  his  best  and  wished  his 
best.  So  if  any  one  is  to  be  abused  they  may  abuse  me — it  does 
not  make  much  difference,  though  I  wish  it  made  less. 

Before  the  next  attempt  in  1891  he  wrote  to  ask  advice 
from  his  friend  Mr  Cubitt. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
2  April,  1 89 1. 

My  dear  Cubitt, 

Will  you  kindly  counsel  me  as  to  the  Clergy  Discipline 
Bill — the  tactics  that  should  be  pursued  in  regard  of  it  with  a  view 

^  Lord  Ashcombe  notes  that  the  Extraordinary  Tithe  Bill  was  passed  in  a 
great  hurry  and  affected  many  Clergymen  in  the  hop  district  and  so  in  the 
archdiocese.  It  had  this  peculiarity,  that  it  punished  the  existing  incumbents 
for  the  benefit  of  their  successors,  i.e.  by  converting  a  precarious  large  annual 
payment  into  a  smaller  perpetual  annuity. 


CLERGY   DISCIPLINE   BILL 


79 


to  getting  it  through.     If  it  does  not  now  pass  it  will  be  becoming 
a  kind  of  Deceased  Wife's  Sister  Bill. 

But  indeed  it  is  necessary  for  its  own  purposes.  The  scandals 
which  cannot  now  be  remedied  are  doing  infinite  harm,  and  tend 
much  more  than  anything  to  disestablishment. 

I  want  to  write  to  W.  H.  Smith.  He  promised  twice  to  do 
all  he  possibly  could  to  get  it  through.  Mr  Gladstone  promised 
to  give  it  such  a  lift  as  he  could. 

I  suppose  the  Government  will  not  make  it  a  Government 
measure.     And  I  wish  you  would  introduce  it. 

If  these  things  are  impossible — (but  why  should  they  be  ?) — 
then  I  am  told  that  as  a  matter  of  tactics  it  would  be  good  to  get 
a  Liberal — if  there  is  one — to  propose  it  from  that  side  of  the 
House — and  to  get  the  Government  to  give  it  facilities.  But  is 
that  a  course  which  I  could  propose  to  W.  H.  Smith  ? 

I  know  so  little  of  how  any  of  these  things  are  done,  that  any 
advice  you  can  give  me,  as  to  what  to  urge,  or  what  to  put  to 
W.  H.  Smith,  would  be  most  gratefully  received. 

There  is  springing  up  a  very  wide  and  deep  feeling  of  dis- 
content with  the  Conservatives  on  the  part  of  Churchmen  as  not 
having  redeemed  their  pledge  to  the  Church  by  one  single  measure 
to  her  benefit  or  morals.  There  are  many  doubts  about  the  Tithe 
Bill'  and  a  general  sense  that  vigour  at  first  would  have  saved 
much  misery,  and  perhaps  all  misery. 

However,  if  you  can  give  me  any  light  on  the  tactics  for  the 
Clergy  Discipline  Bill  it  is  high  time  that  I  should  use  it. 

Yours  ever  sincerely, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
lo  April,  1 89 1. 
Mv  dear  Mr  Smith, 

I  trust  that  I  am  right  in  believing  that  a  Bill  which 
the  House  of  Lords  has  passed  so  unanimously  on  the  motion  of 
the  two  Archbishops  may  according  to  precedent  be  made  a 
Government  measure  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

You  kindly  allowed  me  to  hope  this  when  it  was  crowded  out 
before. 

^  The  Tithe  Act,  1891,  became  law  on  Aug.  5,  1891.  The  Archbishop  did 
not  however  consider  this  exclusively  a  Church  Bill.  "Tithe,"  he  wrote  in 
1888,  "is  a  Landlords'  Bill." 


8o  CLERGY    DISCIPLINE    BILL  aet.  6i 

This  Bill  is,  as  you  are  aware,  concerned  wholly  and  entirely 
with  Immorality.  Its  process  is  carefully  made  inapplicable  to 
any  other  subject. 

The  necessity  for  Legislation,  unhappily,  is  great.  Not  through 
the  scandals  being  numerous,  but  intolerable,  notorious,  and 
irremoveable  as  things  are. 

The  seiise  of  the  necessity  is  becoming  very  strong,  and  is 
distinctly  affecting  the  views  entertained  as  to  great  interests  about 
the  Church. 

Lord  Cross  has,  along  with  a  very  strong  Committee,  gone 
thoroughly  into  the  Bill.  Both  sides  of  the  House  of  Lords 
supported  it.  The  Archbishop  of  York  in  his  conference  on 
Wednesday  explained  mistaken  objections  most  fully. 

Mr  Gladstone  promised  that  he  would  favour  it  in  the  House, 
and  I  will  (if  you  wish  it)  apply  again  to  him. 

I  venture  most  earnestly  to  hope  that  you  will  yourself  introduce 
it,  if  you  are  satisfied  with  it.  That  would  ensure  its  passing,  and 
lasting  gratitude  to  you  and  the  Government. 

With  great  respect. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 
Edw.  Cantuar. 

From  the  Rt  Hon.  W.  H.  Smith. 

lo,  Downing  Street,  Whitehall, 
14  April,  1 89 1. 
My  dear  Archbishop, 

I  hope  it  will  be  possible  to  pass  your  Bill  this  Session. 
I  shall  certainly  make  every  effort  to  do  so,  and  I  am  aware  the 
measure  is  greatly  needed. 

There  is  however  a  positive  certainty  of  opposition  from  those 
members  who  will  not  if  they  can  help  it  permit  any  legislation 
giving  power  to  the  Church  to  punish  offenders  within  her  own 
ranks. 

Mr  Gladstone  has  some  influence  with  these  members,  and 
although  I  shall  ask  him  to  support  the  Bill,  it  would  be  very 
important  that  your  Grace  should  urge  upon  him  the  plain  duty 
of  doing  so. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Archbishop,  with  the  highest  respect, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

W.  H.  Smith. 


1 89 1  LETTER   TO    MR    GLADSTONE  8i 

The  Archbishop  accordingly  wrote : — 

To  Mr  Gladstone. 

Lambeth  Palace. 

21  April,  1 89 1, 
My  dear  Mr  Gladstone, 

I  am  venturing  to  plead  with  you  most  earnestly  for 
help  in  a  critical  matter.  That  for  the  Church's  health  and  work, 
which  are  so  dear  to  you,  you  will  say  a  word  to  those  with  whom 
you  are  all  powerful. 

It  is  not  much  to  ask  of  them  that  they  will  stand  aloof  when 
she  seeks  leave  only  to  part  with  ivicked  Ministers — to  move  them 
from  Moses'  seat. 

There  are  those  who  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  they  will 
hinder  any  measure  in  Parliament  which  is  for  the  Church's  good. 
And  I  can  quite  understand  them,  if  they  mean  that  they  will 
hinder  anything  which  makes  for  her  aggrandisement  or  potency. 
And  I  can  understand  them  if  they  say  they  will  not  let  our 
Doctrine  or  our  Ritual  be  so  guarded  or  cleared  as  to  prevent 
internal  dissension. 

But  surely  to  compel  us  to  keep  unmoral  men  in  spiritual 
places— to  keep  poisons  running  and  filtering  into  our  people's 
life-springs — is  a  crime — a  sin  which  ought  not  to  be  connived  at. 

The  Bill— "Clergy  DiscipHne  Bill  (Immorality) "—which, 
having  passed  the  Lords,  the  Government  will  present  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  is  concerned  with  nothing  but  Immorality. 
No  one  living  knows  or  feels  as  you  do  how  intense  and  de- 
structive the  power  of  evil  is,  in  its  actions  and  in  its  reactions, 
when  vicious  pastors  live  and  celebrate  religious  offices  among  their 
people — practically  unassailable  by  authority,  and — if  by  immense 
pains  and  at  great  cost  they  are  convicted — receiving  for  punish- 
ment a  mere  "  holiday  "  : — so  it  was  lately  called  by  a  bad  man 
returning  from  a  three  months'  tour,  during  suspension,  to  his 
afflicted  parishioners.  Nothing  but  the  Benefice  has  been  con- 
sidered.    The  "  souls  of  the  parishioners "  least  of  all. 

I  do  with  all  my  heart  look  to  you,  whose  very  name  is  bound 
up  with  all  the  great  Churchmen  of  the  age,  to  say  a  word  for  the 
Bill  in  the  House,  and  to  say  a  word  beforehand  to  those  who,  in 
a  simple  hostiUty  to  the  Church,  little  think— perhaps  Uttle  know, 
for  the  cases  are  not  numerous  though  hopeless — how  they  are 
hurting   moral   life   and   tone.     The   cases   are   echoed  on   and 

B.  II  6 


82  CLERGY    DISCIPLINE    BILL  aet.  6i 

multiplied  by  the  Press  until — (and  while  they  last,  I  do  not 
complain)  many  a  good  dissenter  believes  the  Church  to  be  full 
of  such  men,  when  there  never  was  more  of  suffering  devotion. 
We  all  feel  how  much  we  do  look  to  you,  and  how  much  the 
Church  may  have  to  thank  you  for. 

It  is  sad,  and  a  new  thing  in  history,  that  the  position  should 
be  taken  and  avowed. 

Believe  me,  with  greatest  respect, 

Dear  Mr  Gladstone, 

Yours  most  sincerely, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

Frojn  Mr  Gladstone. 

1 8,  Park  Lane. 
April  22,rci,   1891. 
My  dear  Lord  Archbishop, 

Your  Grace's  letter  was  a  surprise  to  me,  but  upon 
receiving  it  I  set  about  making  the  necessary  enquiries  to  ascertain 
as  far  as  possible  whether  there  was  any  likelihood  of  an  opposition 
in  limine  to  the  Criminous  Clerks  bill  as  a  measure  found  guilty  by 
the  fact  of  its  being  of  advantage  to  the  Church.  I  have  not 
found  any  trace  of  an  intention  so  to  oppose  the  measure,  which  I 
should  think  will  be  fairly  considered  on  its  merits  in  detail  with  a 
just  appreciation  of  the  goodness  of  its  purpose. 

Mr  Smith  informs  me  that  he  cannot  take  the  Bill  until  after 
Whitsuntide. 

I  remain,  with  deep  respect, 

Your  Grace's  very  sincere  and  faithful, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

To  Mr  Gladstone. 

/^th  July,  1 89 1. 
Mv  dear  Mr  Gladstone, 

I  cannot  express  half  as  strongly  as  I  feel  either  my 
anxiety  for  your  full  recovery  of  strength  or  my  great  sympathy 
with  your  other  present  anxiety.  May  God  grant  the  prayers  of 
our  Communion. 

But  I  feel  sure  that  you  will  not  think  me  wanting  in  those 


1891    CORRESPONDENCE   WITH   MR   GLADSTONE     83 

most  true  sympathies,  if  I  even  now  venture  to  say  how  many 
people  speak  to  me  and  how  earnestly  about  the  Clergy  Dis- 
cipline Bill.  All  of  those  who  care  for  the  Church  feel  (and  I 
feel)  that  so  favourable  an  opportunity  for  it  passing  can — 
humanly  speaking — not  be  expected  to  recur,  and  that  the  need 
for  it  is  quite  overpowering. 

I  am  not  going  to  press  you  to  attend  the  House  when  you 
ought  not.  I  see  by  the  papers  that  you  do  not  expect  to  be 
there  next  week — and  I  am  far  too  sorry  that  the  great  effort  for 
the  Colonial  Bishopric  fund  should  have  so  affected  you  (as  I  fear) 
to  wish  to  renew  it. 

But  if  the  sad  fact  were  that  you  are  not  likely  to  be  back  in 
time  to  secure  the  passing  of  the  Bill  which  would  certainly  pass  if 
you  were,  could  you  through  your  lieutenants  help  us  ? 

Mr  Illingworth '  promised  two  years  ago  that  he  would  not 
oppose  a  bill  limited  to  morality.  I  hope  he  has  not  forgotten 
that.  But  Mr  Picton's"  question  on  Thursday  to  Mr  Smith 
seemed  to  imply  that  there  were  those  who  would  oppose  it — 
and  only  your  own  Front  Bench  could  restrain  this.  What  I 
most  desire  to  see  is  your  loving  churchmanship  joining  to  deliver 
the  Church  from  those  worst  enemies  from  whom  any  moral  man 
desires  to  deliver  any  religious  institution,  and  against  whom  we 
are  now  practically  powerless.  If  your  voice  cannot  be  heard  in 
time,  can  you  do  anything  else  for  us? 

Believe  me,  with  greatest  respect. 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

Ed.  Cantuar. 

From  Mr  Gladstone. 

18,  Park  Lane. 

July  6,  1 89 1. 
My  dear  Lord  Archbishop, 

I  must  not  delay  my  reply  to  your  Grace  on  the 
important  subject  of  the  Clergy  Discipline  Bill. 

My  means  of  action  with  regard  to  it  are  and  have  been  but 
limited. 

Your  Grace  was  apprehensive  of  an  opposition  to  the  Bill 
otherwise  than  on  the  merits. 

^  M.P.  for  Bradford,  '  M.P.  for  Leicester. 

6—2 


84  CLERGY   DISCIPLINE   BILL  aet.  62 

I  cheerfully  undertook  to  do  my  best  in  order  to  prevent  any 
such  opposition.  For  this  purpose  I  communicated  with  those 
most  likely  to  raise  it  and  I  felt  myself  able  to  tell  Mr  Smith  that 
it  was  not  to  be  feared.  The  remaining  questions  are  whether 
there  will  be  so  much  of  resistance  or  discussion  as  to  require  an 
appreciable  amount  of  time,  and  whether  Mr  Smith  can  afford 
that  time.  These  questions  of  course  he  has  far  better  means  of 
answering  than  I  have. 

Nothing  will  I  hope  ever  happen  to  impede  my  humble  efforts 
to  second  any  design  of  your  Grace's  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Church. 

I  remain,  with  profound  respect, 

Your  Grace's  very  sincere  and  faithful, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Mr  Gladstone  added  in  a  later  letter  that  he  had 
consulted  with  Sir  William  Harcourt,  and  had  arranged 
matters  as  far  as  possible  in  accordance  with  the  Arch- 
bishop's wishes. 

To  the  Rt  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour. 

[Oa.  1 89 1.] 
My  dear  Mr  Balfour, 

First  let  me  express  what  I  did  not  like  merely  to 
interrupt  you  by  saying — the  fulness  of  satisfaction  and  hope  in 
your  leadership  \ 

I  want  to  say  how  anxiously  and  confidently  we  look  to  the 
Government  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  to  take  the  Clergy 
Discipline  Bill  early  next  Session  in  the  Commons  and  to  carry  it. 
It  has  twice  been  carried  in  the  Lords  and  both  times  lost  through 
pressure  in  the  Commons'. 

Discipline  and  Patronage  are  the  two  subjects  in  which  the 

^  Mr  W.  H.  Smith  died  Oct.  6,  1891,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  Leadership 
of  the  House  of  Commons  by  Mr  Balfour. 

^  As  the  Archbishop  said  in  his  speech  March,  1892,  Mr  Smith  "had 
undertaken  to  pass  it  through  the  Commons"  in  1891,  but  that  "it  had 
perished  on  one  of  the  very  last  days  of  the  Session." 


1891  LETTERS    TO    MINISTERS'  85 

strength  of  the  Disestablishers  lies.  These  are  blots  about  which 
we  have  nothing  to  say.  And  our  ill  success  with  this  Bill  is 
made  a  new  argument. 

It  is  the  whole  Bill  that  is  wanted,  not  four  clauses,  which  our 
enemies  would  concede.  The  rest  of  the  Bill  is  concerned  with 
the  real  evil,  the  exceeding  expense,  delay  and  uncertainty  which 
render  it  next  to  impossible  to  carry  on  a  suit.  While  these 
remain  the  criminal  clergyman  is  tolerably  safe.  They  are  few, 
but  the  effect  they  produce  is  ruinous.  The  Bill  will  have  from 
you  the  support  it  had  in  Mr  Smith.  I  shall  ask  Lord  Salisbury 
to  approve  the  introduction  in  the  Lords  of  the  twice  passed 
Patronage  Bill. 

Once  more — may  God  give  you  fullest  strength  and  health  for 
your  great  work. 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 

Ed.  Cantuar. 

In  writing  to  Lord  Salisbury  (9th  Nov.  1 891)  he  said: — 

I  venture  to  express  the  hopes  we  build  on  the  promise  made 
by  the  Ministers  in  accordance  with  your  judgment  that  the 
Clergy  Discipline  Bill  may  be  taken  early  in  the  session  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

It  has  twice  passed  the  House  of  Lords  and  been  slain 
because  it  came  late  in  the  other  House. 

I  wish  also  to  ask  your  Lordship's  consent  to  my  bringing  in 
again  in  the  Lords  early,  the  Bill  which  was  well  threshed  out  and 
passed  in  1887  on  Patronage.  The  Attorney-General  has  kindly 
read  it,  and  I  think  I  may  say  much  approves  it. 

The  Archbishop  wrote  also  to  Mr  Goschen  in  the  same 

strain,  but  finding  from  the  answer  that  some  important 

questions  were  not  understood  he  addressed  the  following 

letter  to  Mr  Balfour  : — 

9/A  Nov.  1 89 1. 
My  dear  Mr  Balfour, 

I  have  already  troubled  you  on  the  Clergy  Discipline 
Bill,  but  I  find  from  a  letter  of  Mr  Goschen's  that  there  are  one 
or  two  misconceptions  on  the  subject.     I  believe  you  will  not 


86  CLERGY    DISCIPLINE    BILL  aet.  62 

think  it  too  much  trouble  to  listen  to  my  appeal  for  the  Bill  as 
having  wider  bearings  than  the  mere  immediate  administration. 

It  seems  that  it  is  thought  that  the  first  four  clauses  of  the  Bill 
contain  its  essence,  but  this  is  not  so — the  facts  are  these  that  the 
Bill  is  intended  to  meet. 

If  an  immoral  clergyman  is  brought  into  court  by  his  Bishop 
or  his  people — the  ecclesiastical  law  now  admits  so  many  appeals, 
and  is  so  costly  in  all  its  procedure,  has  so  many  technical  quibbles, 
and  its  sentences  are  so  ridiculous  that  all  have  nearly  given  up  in 
despair  the  attempts  at  correction.  The  only  person  punished  is 
generally  the  complainant  who  is  fined  from  ^1000  or  ^2000 
up  to  ^14,000  in  costs  in  well  known  cases.         *         * 

It  is  matter  of  despair  to  see  such  men  perfectly  safe — matter 
of  derision,  a  most  powerful  weapon  for  the  enemies. 

Well,  the  point  of  the  Bill  is  to  simplify  this  process.  Most 
excellent  lawyers  civil  and  ecclesiastical  have  worked  at  it  in 
Committees  at  my  house,  in  a  long  series  of  meetings  which  have 
always  been  attended  by  all  and  there  is  perfect  unanimity  among 
us. 

If  the  Bill  is  too  complex  the  Attorney-General  who  knows  it 
thoroughly  and  has  followed  every  step,  will  help  me  to  simplify  it. 
There  is  07ie  point  only  on  which  some  churchmen  have  raised  a 
difficulty — we  can  easily  alter  it.  But  the  mind  of  the  Church  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  both  Convocations,  the  House  of  Laymen 
and  every  Diocesan  Conference  have  urged  that  it  should  be 
passed. 

Now  the  first  four  clauses  only  vacate  the  livings  of  men 
convicted  in  a  civil  court.  There  are  of  course  very  few  of 
these. 

The  "  essence  of  the  Bill "  is  simplification  of  processes.  The 
first  4  clauses  touch  only  one  of  the  cases. 

The  other  misconception  is  that  the  promise  last  session  was 
regarding  only  these  clauses.  The  debates  will  show  that  it  was 
not  so  but  that  the  promise  was  to  introduce  the  whole  Bill.  The 
mistake  has  arisen  from  the  fact  that  last  session  it  was  considered 
whether  it  was  worth  while  to  bring  in  the  four  the?i,  and  leave 
the  rest  for  a  future  occasion.  This  was  not  done  but  I  daresay 
it  gave  rise  to  the  idea  that  the  Bill  itself  was  reduced. 

As  early  as  the  23rd  of  January,  a  fortnight  before  the 
beginning  of  the  Session,  he  wrote  again  : — 


t892  LETTER   TO    MR    BALFOUR  87 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
l-},rd  Jan.   1892. 

My  dear  Balfour, 

May  I  write,  as  I  hear  that  other  thoughts  are  possible, 
to  plead  most  earnestly  that  the  Clergy  Discipline  Bill  may  be 
introduced  first  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  Mr  Smith  and 
others  intended  and  promised.  He  thought  it  necessary,  if  the 
Government  really  meant  to  pass  it — as  we  know  it  does — because 
it  had  twice  passed  the  House  of  Lords  and  the  position  was  really 
beginning  to  damage  the  Church.  It  was  said  it  might  pass  again 
and  again  in  the  Upper  House  but  would  be  always  dropped  in 
the  Lower,  and  that  meantime  we  are  not  in  earnest  in  wishing  to 
abolish  our  scandals.  I  know  this  to  be  the  feeUng  of  many,  while 
on  the  other  hand  the  feeling  grows  stronger  and  wider  that  if  the 
Church  cannot  be  helped  to  get  rid  of  such  evils  she  must  not 
pretend  to  be  in  any  sense  national.  It  is  in  some  sense  a  test 
measure. 

Mr  Smith  held  and  the  Attorney-General  (to  quote  no  other 
opinions)  agreed  that  if  it  is  not  taken  at  the  beginning  of  a 
session  in  the  House  of  Commons  the  same  fate  must  attend  it. 
It  must  be  crowded  out  at  the  end  of  the  Session.  Both  times 
before  I  have  been  told  "  We  mean  to  pass  it."  '*  As  soon  as  it 
comes  from  the  Lords  we  will  go  through  with  it."  You  know 
how  impossible  it  seemed  as  soon  as  the  thick  of  the  business 
came  on,  and  this  year,  with  the  election  impeding  it,  it  must  be  at 
least  as  certain  to  be  put  off  again  and  the  Church  will  be  con- 
temned as  the  only  body  in  the  world  which  cannot  get  rid  of 
unworthy  servants. 

The  Bill  is  the  same  as  ever  in  substance  and  principle. 
Nothing  but  compression  has  been  applied  to  it.  The  single 
objection  made  by  the  High  Church  party  is  met. 

I  hear  that  you  think  "Deposition"  will  create  difficulties  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  If  you  do  think  so  I  trust  your 
judgment  and  give  it  up.  I  agree  that  the  Bill  should  declare 
the  benefice  vacant.  As  regards  another  point,  I  desire  that  the 
man  should  be  moved  and  may  do  good  service  elsewhere.  But  if 
moved  as  deposed  he  could  not. 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 

Ed.  Cantuar. 


88  CLERGY   DISCIPLINE   BILL  aet.  62 

A  correspondence  ensued  with  Mr  Balfour  upon  this 
point  of  the  introduction  of  the  Bill  first  in  the  House  of 
Commons — a  point  which  had  been  urged  upon  my  father 
and  which  he  had  strongly  taken  up. 

Mr  Balfour  took  the  opposite  view — that  time  would  be 
gained  by  introducing  the  Bill  first  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
because  on  a  bill  coming  to  the  Commons  from  the  Upper 
House,  the  motion  for  its  first  reading  must  then  be  put 
without  debate.     He  added  : — 

I   myself  am   personally   most   anxious   to   get   the   Bill 

through  and  have  good  hopes  ot  doing  so ;  but  the  order  of 
precedence  among  Government  measures  is  settled  not  by  me  but 
by  the  Cabinet,  and  I  think  it  unlikely  that  they  would  consent  to 
give  the  Clergy  Bill  precedence  over  all  other  proposals  of  the 
Government.  Perhaps  you  would  speak  or  write  to  the  Prime 
Minister  on  this  point  when  you  get  an  opportunity. 

This  course  was  therefore  taken  and  in  a  speech  pro- 
posing the  Second  Reading  of  the  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Lords  on  March  3rd  the  Archbishop  said  : — 

At  present  it  is  the  authorities  who  attempt  to  do  their  duty 
who  are  punished  and  not  the  offender... what  with  time,  with 
expensiveness,  with  technicality,  men  are,  as  well  as  have  been, 
secure  in  their  place.  There  they  stay,  safe,  to  old  age ;  and  in 
that  old  age  the  hoary  head  is  not  only  a  crown  of  shame  to  that 
man,  but  it  is  a  crown  of  shame  to  that  Church  which  cannot 
help  keeping  him  in  his  place.         *         *         * 

The  Bill  seems  then,  in  the  light  in  which  I  am  able  to  view 
it,— its  necessity  and  its  provisions — so  just,  so  reasonable,  to 
answer  so  necessary  an  end  by  such  simple  means,  that  one  asks 
oneself  who  are  the  opponents  of  the  Bill.  My  Lords,  there  are 
enemies  and  enemies.  I  shall  speak  with  the  utmost  modera- 
tion, I  hope,  of  any  opposition  to  the  Bill ;  but  there  are 
honourable  adversaries  of  the  Church,  very  decided  adversaries 
but  fair  and  honourable  men,  who,  in  the  other  House,  and  in 
other  places,  have  declared  emphatically  that  the  Bill  ought  to 
pass.  If  there  are  any  others  who  have  different  motives  ;  if  there 
are  any  who  would  keep  abuses  in  the  Church  to  forward  their 
own  views  of  what  ought  to  be  done  with  the  Church ;  what  a 


189a  CARRIED    IN    THE    COMMONS  89 

serious  position  they  stand  in  !  They  cry  out  one  moment,  "  Souls 
are  perishing  because  of  neglect " ;  and  the  next  moment  they  cry 
out  "  Let  them  perish  until  we  can  carry  destructive  measures  of 
our  own." 

The  Bill  passed  through  its  stages  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  he  wrote  again  on  March  14th  to  Mr  Balfour 
and  Mr  Gladstone  to  solicit  support  for  it  in  the  Commons. 
Mr  Balfour  again  expressed  much  personal  interest  but 
took  a  less  hopeful  view  than  Mr  Gladstone  of  the  pro- 
babilities of  opposition  and  therefore  of  the  time  required 
for  getting  it  through. 

On  Thursday,  April  28th,  the  Bill  came  before  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  second  reading  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  213.  The  Archbishop  (writing  on  May  i6th) 
says : — 

The  opposition  in  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Commons 
to  the  Discipline  Bill  is  being  conducted  by  three  Welsh  Obstruc- 
tionists in  the  most  outrageous  way.  The  Committee  consists  of 
84  members,  but  these  three  have  filled  nearly  nine  foolscap  pages 
of  print  with  "  amendments  "  fighting  and  speaking  on  every  word, 
and  have  inserted  several  of  the  clauses  of  the  first  bill  which  we 
dropped  as  impossible.  Mr  Balfour,  the  Speaker,  and  Mr  Gladstone 
have  had  conferences  on  the  subject,  and  are  determined  not  to 
let  "the  character  of  the  House"  as  Mr  Gladstone  says,  "be  utterly 
ruined."  Mr  Gladstone  has  never  sate  on  a  Committee  before,  it 
is  said,  but  he  told  me  "he  held  it  a  duty,  a  duty,  to  go  down  and 
stop  the  shameful  interruption  of  business."  And  he  told  A — — , 
who  says  he  never  saw  him  so  excited,  that  the  "scandal  should 
come  to  an  end."  The  House  of  Commons  will  probably  take 
some  strong  action  on  the  subject. 

I  have  not  noted  it  at  the  date,  but  Balfour's  and  Gladstone's 
speeches  on  the  second  reading  were  very  fine.  Trevelyan  says 
"  he  has  no  greater  intellectual  treat  than  Hstening  to  Gladstone 
and  he  doubts  if  he  ever  heard  him  speak  better" — so  convincingly 
and  with  so  light  and  ready  a  touch.  It  is  remarkable  indeed 
to  have  had  both  leaders  on  my  side,  and  the  whole  House  so 
clear  about  the  necessity  and  sense  of  my  Bill  that  they  passed 
second  reading  by,  I  think,  230  to  17. 


90  CLERGY    DISCIPLINE    BILL  aet.  62 

On  June  2nd,  1892,  he  says  in  his  Diary  : — 

The  House  of  Commons  began  Discipline  Bill  at  3  p.m.  and 
sate  till  after  i  a.m.  when  they  finished  the  Report  and  passed  the 
Third  Reading.  The  Welsh  members,  three  actively  and  a  tail  of 
13  or  14,  produced  and  talked  as  far  as  they  were  allowed  on  10 
pages  of  amendments,  most  of  them  childish  and  many  of  them 
bhndly  replacing  things  which  I  had  dropped  from  the  1891  Bill 
as  too  good  to  please  the  House.  Some  of  those  have  therefore 
been  replaced  by  the  deft  acceptance  of  them  by  Attorney-General 
and  they  have  outwitted  themselves.  The  Bill  was  finally  passed 
with  loud  cheers,  from  both  sides  of  the  House,  by  I  think  231  to 
17.  Both  sides  have  been  enabled  by  our  delay  thoroughly  to 
grasp  it,  and  thoroughly  to  realise  the  unmeasured  unfairness  of 
the  opposition.  This  has  been  emphasised  again  by  a  telegram 
from  400  Welsh  delegates  somewhere  assembled,  congratulating 
the  three  on  their  noble  stand — in  defiance  of  their  leader 
Mr  Gladstone,  and  of  the  appeals  of  the  A.  G.,  and  of  the  Speaker's 
reproofs,  and  the  active  support  given  to  the  Bill  by  honest  Non- 
conformists, like  Mr  Henry  Fowler  and  Mr  Picton.  The  whole 
history  of  the  Bill  has  opened  people's  eyes  to  the  real  spirit  in 
which  the  Welsh  Disestablishers  approach  the  problems,  and  has 
produced  a  most  salutary  effect. 

On  June  loth  he  wrote  to  Mr  (now  Sir)  Henry  Fowler 
and  Mr  Picton  : — 

To  the  Rt  Hon.  H.  H.  Fowler,  M.P. 

Auckland  Castle,  Bishop  Auckland. 
Ju7ie  10,  1892. 
My  dear  Sir, 

Those  who  were  present  at  the  Standing  Committee 
tell  me  how  much  the  discussion  of  the  Discipline  Bill  owed  to 
your  just  and  firm  opposition  to  obstruction,  and  to  the  clear  view 
which  you  expressed  that  the  best  ought  to  be  done  with  it.  Of 
course  I  know  that  you  acted  only  from  sense  of  duty,  but  I  hope 
you  will  not  consider  that  I  am  taking  an  improper  liberty  if  I 
venture  to  make  my  acknowledgments,  and  to  say  how  much 
touched  I  am  by  these  acts  of  fairness  especially  because  we  do 


1892  STANDING   COMMITTEE  91 

not  see  all  important  things  at  present  in  the  same  light.  May 
the  spirit,  which  you  have  thus  shown,  be  a  ruling  spirit  in  all  our 
concerns  and  on  all  sides. 

I  beg  to  remain, 

Most  faithfully  yours, 

Ed.  Cantuar. 

To  J.  A.  Picton,  Esq.,  M.P. 

June  10,   1892. 
My  dear  Sir, 

I  hope  that  you  will  not  consider  that  the  fact  of  our 
non-agreement  on  all  points  makes  it  an  improper  liberty  for  me 
to  take  if  I  venture  to  offer  my  best  acknowledgments  to  you  for 
the  part  which  I  am  assured  you  were  so  good  as  to  take  in  the 
discussion  in  Standing  Committee  of  Discipline  Bill.  Of  course 
I  know  that  you  acted  only  from  sense  of  duty,  but  that  does  not 
make  me  feel  the  less  happiness  in  the  thought  of  the  justly 
balanced  mind  with  which  you  viewed  the  Tightness  of  doing  the 
best  for  any  such  bill  and  the  fairness  with  which  you  opposed 
unfairness. 

Believe  me  that  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  this  and  that  I  long 
to  see  more  of  such  a  spirit  on  all  sides.  I  feel  that  you,  and 
other  members  with  you,  have  done  much  to  promote  the  right 
handling  of  such  matters. 

On  the  loth  June  he  was  still  working  at  the  Clergy- 
Discipline  Bill ;  he  writes  : — 

June  10. — Examining  the  Amendments  in  the  Bill  carefully 
with  Sir  R.  Webster  and  Sir  H.  Jenkyns\  The  former  has 
managed  the  Bill  splendidly.  We  have  the  appointment  of 
assessors  exactly  as  we  wished ;  we  have  punishment  of  disobe- 
dience to  sentence,  and  we  have  power  of  deposition  from  Holy 
Orders  by  the  Bishop — a  rather  startling  fact  considering  (I 
suppose)  that  we  have  scarcely,  if  ever,  exercised  it  since  the 
Reformation.  We  have  various  minor  improvements,  but  amid 
all  misgivings  and  fears,  God's  providence  seems  to  have  watched 
over  the  storm  of  this  Bill  and  given  the  Church  immensely 
increased  powers  for  her  purification  from  unworthy  priests. 
Fiat. 

^  Parliamentary  Counsel  to  the  Treasury. 


92  PATRONAGE   REFORM  aet.  63 

On  the   1 6th  of  June  he  wrote: — 

Moved  in  the  Lords  that  amendments  of  Commons  in  Clergy 
DiscipHne  Bill  be  adopted.  As  I  ended  the  simple  moving  they 
cheered.  The  Bill  was  carried  in  the  House  of  Commons  with 
loud  cheers,  and  we  have  been  everlastingly  saying  and  hearing 
that  no  Church  Bill  could  ever  pass  Parliament  again.  Now  we'll 
have  a  try  at  Patronage. 

How  quickly  he  set  to  work  will  be  seen  when  we  find 

him  writing  on  the  23rd  of  July  in  the  same  year  : — 

I  find  myself  awkwardly  placed  in  the  matter  of  patronage- 
had  a  meeting  at  Lambeth  to  disfiuss  my  new  Bill  for  the  last 
time  before  February.  Bp  London,  Selbome,  Thring,  Herschell, 
Jeune,  Abp  York,  and  A.  Grey.  No  one  feels  more  strongly  that 
the  Trust  of  an  Advowson  ought  never  to  have  acquired  a  money 
value  and  that  the  right  way  of  dealing  with  sales  is  to  abolish 
them.  This  line  is  taken  by  London  and  Herschell,  who  would 
do  away  utterly  with  them  after  two  more  avoidances.  But  this 
"  after  "  is  a  mere  trick,  I  think,  to  make  them  now  seem  valueless 
when  the  time  comes,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  Law  has  by 
abundant  and  long  continued  action  given  a  value  and  allowed  it 
to  pass  from  hand  to  hand  like  other  values.  I  feel  how  the 
future  will  be  unable  to  realise  that  decent  people  could  have 
lived  under  such  a  scheme.  But  I  can't  feel  that  as  Archbishop 
it  is  my  place  to  confiscate  and  set  an  example  of  confiscation. 

B takes  very  strongly  the  line  that  to  call  it  not  confiscation 

is  a  trick  of  words.  As  a  policy,  our  difficulty  seems  to  be  this — 
the  Commons  would  pass  probably  a  Bill  prohibiting  sales,  and 
would  refuse  a  Bill,  which,  by  improving  the  system  and  stopping 
gross  abuses,  would  tend  to  perpetuate  the  system.  The  Lords 
would  be  very  cross  with  a  bill  abolishing  it.  One  real  evil  would 
be  that  owners  losing  their  landed  properties  and  unable  to  sell 
the  advowsons,  would  retain  them,  so  to  speak,  as  paupers. 
Nothing  could  be  worse  than  that :  they  would  of  course  sell 
them  fraudulently.  As  an  immediate  measure  we  may  perhaps 
suffer  sale  to  ( i )  People  having  residential  interest  in  a  parish  ; 
(2)  To  a  board  of  patronage ;  (3)  To  public  patrons. 

Mr  Dibdin  adds  : — 

The  Archbishop,  after  the  usual  consultations  with  a  little 
committee  of  influential  helpers,   early  in    1893,   introduced  his 


r894  THE   CHURCH    PARTY 


93 


Patronage  Bill  of  that  year.  It  was  on  the  lines  of  the  scheme  of 
1887,  not  that  of  1886,  and  it  did  not  advance  beyond  the  House 
of  Lords.  Before  the  next  year  (1894)  the  Church  Parliamentary 
Committee  had  been  formed  in  the  House  of  Commons  under 
the  chairmanship  of  Sir  Richard  Webster. 

This  Committee  needs  a  word.  On  the  8th  of  March, 
1894,  the  Archbishop  wrote  to  Mr  A.  G.  Boscawen,  one 
of  the  leading  members  of  the  party,  with  whom  he  had 
much  correspondence  and  to  whom  he  wrote  frankly  and 
freely  on  these  subjects : — 

I  am  afraid  it  has  become  very  difficult  to  unite  in  a  Church 
Party  sections,  or  even  members,  of  different  political  parties  on 
the  ground  of  devotion  to  a  common  interest  in  the  Church,  but 
I  suppose  this  is  a  thing  which  you  would  try  in  some  measure 
to  do,  because  the  difficulties  of  the  Church  identifying  itself  with 
one  party  in  the  State  are  obvious. 

The  Archbishop  was  not  in  favour  of  the  formation 
of  a  Church  party  in  Parliament,  because  he  thought  that 
the  Church  should  be  as  far  as  possible  conterminous  with 
the  State,  but  he  recognised  the  necessity,  in  the  crowded 
condition  of  legislation,  to  have  a  party  who  should  as  far 
as  possible  endeavour  to  keep  the  needs  of  the  Church 
before  the  legislative  body,  and  prevent  the  shelving  of 
Church  questions  in  favour  of  more  widely  popular 
measures.     Nevertheless,  as  Mr  Dibdin  says  : — 

The  Archbishop,  though  it  must  be  owned  that  he  regarded 
this  step  with  some  doubt  as  to  its  ultimate  effect,  co-operated 
with  the  Committee  most  cordially. 

He  wrote  to  Sir  Richard  Webster,  March  9th,  1894  : — 

If  you  think  the  "  Church  Party "  should  "  follow  up "  with 
something  positive,  would  it  not  be  well  to  take  up  the  Patronage 
Bill  of  which  "  pars  magna  fuisti "  ? 

There  could  be  no  more  serious  step  in  Church  Reform,  nor 
any  that  would  more  commend  itself  to  people  at  large ;  its  aim 


94 


PATRONAGE   BILL  aet.  64-66 


is  simply  the  good  of  religion  by  the  abolition  of  perversions,  and 
its  opponents  would  placard  themselves  as  haters  of  Good  in  the 
Church,  instead  of  what  they  profess  to  be,  haters  only  of  Evils. 
Every  Church  body  in  the  kingdom  almost  (including  Convocations 
and  House  of  Laymen)  criticised,  hammered  at,  and  improved  it. 
It  has  Hvice  passed  the  House  of  Lords. 

He  wrote  again  to  Sir  Richard  Webster  a  few  days 
later  : — 

I  cannot  help  thinking  that  though  the  Bill  of  1887  "as 
altered  by  Lord  Salisbury," — i.e.  when  it  left  the  House  of  Lords, 
is  a  better  measure,  yet  that  of  last  year  is  more  likely  to  be 
passed,  and  gives  much  of  what  ,"e  want.  The  "  opposition  of 
clergy"  was,  so  far  as  I  know,  limited  quite  to  those  who  had 
been  concerned  deeply  in  shaky  transactions.  I  do  not  know 
how  they  can  be  provided  for. 

I  am  quite  in  your  hands.  The  former  was  much  more  to 
my  liking,  but  I  think  less  likely  to  pass.     You  will  best  judge. 

The  Commons  are  more  likely  to  take  the  stronger  line  and 
deal  aVoTo/xo)'; '  with  bad  transactions. 

I  see  we  have  second  reading  on  2nd  May.  Whatever  finally 
happens,  that  will  do  great  good  and  strengthen  the  Church  and 
its  supporters  by  the  effort. 

Mr  Dibdin  continues  : — 

He  readily  consented  to  his  Bill  being  introduced  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  where  in  the  Session  of  1894  it  reached  a  forward 
stage,  but  being  blocked  by  Liberationist  and  other  opponents, 
never  had  a  chance  of  a  third  reading.  In  1895  the  Archbishop 
once  more  carried  his  Bill  through  the  House  of  Lords,  but  the 
Dissolution  made  further  progress  hopeless.  In  1896  the  Patron- 
age Bill  was  combined  with  another  Bill,  which  had  been  devised 
in  the  House  of  Commons  for  dealing  with  worn-out  and  negligent 
incumbents,  and  the  two  together  were  launched  by  the  Church 
party  in  the  Commons  as  the  Benefices  Bill.  The  Archbishop 
assented  to  this  course,  but  with  some  reluctance,  partly  because 
the  result  was  a  very  long  and  complicated  Bill,  and  partly  because 
he  thought  the  added  clauses  required  considerable  modification 
and   would   raise   serious  opposition.     The    Bill   passed   second 

^  Summarily. 


1894-1896  BENEFICES    BILL  95 

reading  by  an  immense  majority.  Its  consideration  by  the 
Committee  on  Law  led  to  a  variety  of  alterations,  and  there 
were  points  which  caused  the  Archbishop  a  good  deal  of  anxiety, 
but  they  were  on  the  whole  successfully  surmounted,  and  the  Bill 
came  back  to  the  House  improved  rather  than  otherwise.  Its 
enemies  were,  however,  vigorous,  and  after  two  days  spent  on  the 
first  few  clauses  dealing  with  Patronage,  it  was  plain  that  the 
obstructive  tactics  of  the  so-called  defenders  of  property  could 
only  be  defeated  by  the  Government  taking  up  the  Bill,  and  either 
devoting  a  great  deal  of  time  to  it  or  sacrificing  a  large  portion  of 
it.  The  Archbishop  strained  every  nerve,  and  brought  every 
influence  he  could  think  of  to  bear,  but  it  was  in  vain.  The 
Government  found  themselves  unable  to  add  to  their  responsi- 
bilities, and  so  what  turned  out  to  be  the  Archbishop's  last  session 
ended,  and  the  most  hopeful  opportunity  that  had  occurred  during 
the  Archbishop's  long  struggle  to  obtain  this  reform  passed  away 
without  anything  having  been  accomplished.  He  was  greatly 
disappointed,  but  not  the  least  daunted,  and  had  already  begun 
to  consider  how  the  fight  should  be  renewed,  when  he  was  taken 
away. 

I  subjoin  an  important  letter  written  to  Chancellor 
Dibdin  with  reference  to  the  Benefices  Bill  of  1896.  About 
this  letter  Mr  Dibdin  wrote  to  me : — 

He  was  admitted  on  all  hands  to  have  done  his  work  skilfully 
and  successfully,  but  by  concessions  which  seemed  necessary  to 
get  the  Bill  through  Committee,  the  Bill  got  some  rather  doubtful 
amendments  and  at  one  time  there  was  considerable  risk  of  others 
more  serious.  The  two  main  points  were  (a)  it  was  insisted,  and 
even  members  of  the  Church  party  agreed,  that  a  Bishop  ought 
to  be  compelled  to  hold  a  sort  of  trial  before  he  refused  to  institute 
a  clergyman  presented  to  a  living.  This  would  have  been  a  taking 
away  of  the  Bishop's  pastoral  duty  of  overseeing  his  diocese  and 
his  personal  responsibility  for  the  appointment  of  his  under- 
shepherds.  (d)  It  was  insisted  that  the  appeal  from  this  quasi- 
trial  should  be  to  a  Queen's  Court  (e.g.  the  Privy  Council). 

The  Archbishop  wrote  this  letter  strongly  to  combat  both 
views,  and  it  gives  in  deliberate  terms  his  view  of  two  very 
important  points. 

The  Benefices  Bill  of  1896  did  not  pass  but  it  is  noteworthy 


96  BENEFICES   BILL  aet.  66 

that  in  the  Act  just  passed'  your  father's  views  on  both  points  were 
given  effect  to. 

To  Chancellor  Dibdin. 
{Benefices  Bill.) 

2i\st  March,  1896. 
Mv  DEAR  Chancellor, 

I  am  very  grateful  for  your  kindness  in  letting  me 
know  the  progress  of  the  Benefices  Bill  in  Committee.  I  was 
very  anxious  to  hear,  and  am  thankful  for  the  amount  of  hope- 
fulness which  you  report. 

But  as  we  are  not  out  of  the  wood,  while  some  of  our  own 
people  do  not  even  know  that  we  are  in  a  wood,  I  had  better 
write  to  you  frankly  upon  the  position,  and  you  can  do  anything 
you  like  with  my  letter.     Please  do. 

The  principle  of  the  reform  contemplated  in  all  the  Bills  till 
this  moment  is  clear.  It  is  now  attempted  to  eject  the  principle, 
and  I  am  afraid  that  some  of  our  friends  do  not  see  that  it  is 
vital.     I  will  try  to  show  why  it  is  so. 

If  the  Bishop  is  compelled  to  hold  a  Court  when  first  a  man 
is  presented  to  him  who  is  believed  to  be  unworthy,  (i.e.  if  the 
Bishop  may  not  come  himself  into  personal  contact  with  the  man, 
although  there  is  a  Court  in  the  background  supposing  the  Bishop 
to  decide  amiss ;)  if  this  Court  in  the  background  is  not  the  Arch- 
bishop with  due  (not  dominant)  legal  assistance,  but  is  the  Queen's 
Bench,  Privy  Council,  or  Arches;  then  the  Bill  had  better  not 
have  been  introduced  at  all.  It  will  not  work  (as  I  will  show) 
and  on  such  subjects  an  Act  to  which  no  one  will  resort  is  a 
weakness  and  a  danger.  Better  be  visibly  shackled,  than  have 
an  instrument  put  openly  into  your  hand  and  be  privily  paralyzed 
so  that  you  cannot  use  it. 

This  Bill  and  its  predecessors  originated  in  the  universal  feeling 
of  the  Church  that  the  law,  or  rather  the  Law  Courts  and  Privy 
Council,  were  injurious  to  the  Church  and  her  people,  from  the 
pure  legality  and  technicality  of  their  decisions ;  that  all  kinds 
of  abuse  were  rampant,  in  patronage,  etc.,  not  because  the  facts 
were  not  forbidden  by  law,  but  because  it  was  not  in  the  nature 
of  such  Courts  to  take  cognisance  of  the  most  important  consider- 
ations,— ^the  spiritual  interests  of  the  parish.     There  was  a  general 

^  The  Benefices  Act,  1898. 


1896  POSITION    OF   THE    BISHOPS  97 

sense  that  the  Law  and  the  Courts  insisted  on  men  being  put  into, 
and  kept  in,  benefices  who  were  worse  than  useless  to  reUgion. 

There  was  a  general  feeling  that  the  Bishops  ought  to  be  able 
to  use  their  pastoral  office  to  preclude  miserable  appointments, 
which  were  alienating  many  and  discontenting  all.  Of  course 
the  Liberationist  cry  was  "You  cannot  get  such  considerations 
entertained,  though  they  are  essential  to  a  Church,  so  long  as 
you  are  established." 

The  Bills  hitherto  have  been  honest,  determined  efforts  to  meet 
the  grievance  of  our  people,  and  to  disprove  the  Liberationist  view. 

1.  If  now  you  substitute  a  judicial  proceeding  for  the  Bishop's 
administrative  function,  you  again  fling  away  the  use  of  the 
Episcopal  Office. 

2.  If  you  make  the  appeal  from  him  to  Queen's  Bench,  he 
knows  that  no  such  thing  as  "  spiritual  interests "  can  be  con- 
sidered there.  It  is  not  a  tribunal  for  that  purpose.  He  has 
seen  the  Arches  Court  bring  discipline  to  the  dust.  The  Privy 
Council  is  not  the  tribunal  that  the  Church  at  large  seeks. 

Then  the  Bishop  (or  his  Court)  is  not  likely  to  incur  immense 
anxiety,  labour  and  expense  merely  to  see  the  Church  defeated. 
He,  or  they,  must  say,  "We  cannot  give  a  decision  which  we 
know  to  be  contrary  to  the  mind  (and  soon  to  the  precedents) 
of  Courts  above,  because  they  do  not  come  within  the  range  of 
their  common  practice."  The  Act  will  be  a  dead  letter.  The 
Bishop  will  be  disabled  from  the  first  in  dealing  with  a  bad 
presentee.  There  will  be  no  decisions  to  appeal  against,  therefore 
no  appeals. 

The  Bishops  will  be  denied  even  the  private  intercourse  they 
can  now  have  with  a  suspected  presentee,  because  they  must  not 
go  behind  the  new-fangled  "Assessorial  Courts";  and  the  "Asses- 
sorial  Courts"  will  not  venture  decisions  likely  to  be  upset,  not 
because  they  are  wrong,  but  because  the  spiritual  life  and  welfare 
of  a  village  is  beyond  the  range  of  the  Courts  which  will  revise 
the  decision. 

But  the  Act  will  be  far  worse  than  a  dead  letter.  There  will 
be  a  strong  disgust  through  the  whole  Church  that  they  had  asked 
to  have  these  solemn  questions  of  spiritual  and  pastoral  fitness 
decided  on  pastoral  grounds  by  spiritual  authority,  and  that  they 
have  got  a  stone  for  bread.  The  Liberationist  will  on  the  largest 
scale  have  his  point  exemplified,  "  This  !  This!  is  all  you  can  get 
out  of  a  favourable  Parliament.     These  are  the  disabilities  that 

B.  II.  7 


98  PATRONAGE   REFORM  aet.  67 

attend  an  Established  Church  irremediably."  Large  numbers  of 
influential  people  finding  that  they  have  hoped  in  vain  that  a 
different  lot  was  before  us  will  be  ready  (I  write  advisedly)  to 
disestablish  a  Church  in  which  a  cry  for  freedom  has  brought  fresh 
bonds. 

The  pivots  of  the  Bill  were  these  two  things — Freedom  for 
the  pastoral  office  of  the  Bishop  in  refusing  unworthy  clergy,  and 
an  Appeal  from  him  to  a  separate  and  superior  authority  which 
would  still  have  the  same  interests  of  the  people  before  its  eyes. 
I  know  nothing  more  likely  to  disestablish  the  Church  from 
within  than  the  inversion  of  these  two  just  demands — and  the 
thing  is  taken  lightly  ! 

Believe  me, 

Yours  sincerely, 

E.  W.  Cantuar. 

P.S. — I  have  another  word  to  say.  Suppose  these  two 
essentials  saved,  and  suppose  that  any  other  part  of  the  Bill 
should  have  to  be  given  up,  you  77iust  preserve 

A.  The  two  clauses  about  Sequestration — and 

B.  The  power  to  exclude  the  suspended  person  from 
residence.  I  have  the  most  ghastly  incidents  fresh  and  fresh 
before  me,  which  I  am  ready  to  produce,  arising  out  of  the 
present  condition  of  the  law  on  those  two  things. 

In  a  letter  written  to  Sir  Richard  Webster  on  Sept.  15, 
1896,  he  says  : — 

The  real  question  is  that  of  Patronage.  Getting  rid  of  incom- 
petent clergy  is  a  totally  different  matter  which  ought  not  to  be 
tied  up  with  the  other.  That  is  a  matter  of  Discipline,  which 
might  very  well  have  a  Bill  to  itself  if  the  difficulty  of  dismissing 
men  without  specific  charges  could  be  got  rid  of 

And  it  must  be  remembered  that  while  the  latter  is  a  dimi- 
nishing evil,  Patronage  is  an  increasing  one.  As  livings  go  down 
in  value  they  are  more  purchasable  by  Clergy  and  yield  an 
enormous  life  interest  to  them,  and  a  very  corrupt  constituency  will 
be  created.  This  is  why  Patronage  is  the  subject  calling  for 
immediate  remedy  especially  by  the  party  now  in  power. 


1896  PATRONAGE   REFORM  99 

Mr  Dibdin  continues  : — 

It  is  very  hard  to  say  how  far,  if  at  all,  Archbishop  Benson's 
failure  to  carry  through  the  Reform  of  Church  Patronage  was  due 
to  any  defect  in  himself  or  his  management  of  affairs.  The 
inherent  difficulties  of  the  task  were  very  great,  and  had  foiled 
many  other  champions  of  reform  before  he  took  it  in  hand. 
Certainly  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  anybody  taking  more  pains 
than  the  Archbishop  did  to  succeed.  Moreover,  he  had  fine 
tact,  the  tact  of  a  courageous  and  transparently  honest  man,  with 
quick  insight  and  a  powerful  brain.  In  matters  where  he  felt  at 
home,  his  energy  and  tact  again  and  again  produced  success  where 
failure  seemed  inevitable.  But  it  must  be  admitted  that  Arch- 
bishop Benson  was  not  one  of  the  class  of  men  out  of  which 
successful  Parliamentarians  are  made.  He  was  less  effective  in 
the  House  of  Lords  than  on  the  platform  or  in  the  pulpit.  His 
natural  dignity  and  grace  of  manner  helped  him,  and  he  was 
always  heard  with  respect,  though  not  always  with  full  appreci- 
ation of  what  he  wished  to  convey.  His  notes  contained  only 
the  heads  of  his  speech^  with  here  and  there  a  carefully  packed 
sentence,  much  too  full  of  ideas— as  his  writings  were  apt  to  be — 
which  he  would  read  from  his  paper  without  the  emphasis  of 
manner  essential  to  make  a  listless  audience  attend,  and  without 
allowance  for  their  mental  pace. 

It  is  possible  indeed  that  the  Archbishop  did  not 
sufficiently"  study  the  effect  which  it  was  necessary  to 
produce  on  his  audience.  It  would  have  been  difficult 
for  such  a  nature  to  imagine  that  in  so  serious  a  matter 
as  legislation  there  was  need  to  commend  a  legislative 
measure,  to  do  more  than  to  show  that  it  was  necessary 
and  would  be  effective.  When  he  spoke  with  supreme 
authority,  he  did  so  with  the  dignity  and  show  of  power 
that  were  naturally  fitting,  but  his  instinct  perhaps  was 
that  among  "a  congregation  of  princes"  such  commendation 
should  not  be  needful  ;  it  will  be  seen  that  his  appeal  is 
based  on  the  bare  merits  of  the  case.  Above  all  he 
expected  that  when  dealing  with  the  Conservative  party 
the  Church  should  have  no  need  to  sue  for  benefits.     And 


loo  THE  CHURCH  AND  POLITICAL  PARTIES  aet.  60-67 

again  when  his  Bill  was  more  than  once  dropped  merely 
from  lack  of  time,  though  his  determination  to  press  on  with 
Church  reform  in  no  wise  abated,  a  certain  dissatisfaction, 
even  irritation,  with  the  heads  of  the  Conservative  party, 
which  had  long  been  growing  in  his  mind,  took  a  more 
serious  form.  It  is  clear  that  from  a  want  of  early  famili- 
arity with  Parliamentary  methods  he  underestimated  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  Government;  such,  for  instance, 
as  the  presence  in  the  Cabinet,  owing  to  the  Unionist 
Coalition,  of  a  certain  number  of  politicians  indifferent  to 
the  Reform  of  the  Church,  if  not  actually  hostile  to  her  very 
existence.  It  may  be  that  a  certain  want  of  consideration 
on  the  part  of  some  prominent  members  of  the  party,  in 
matters  where  above  all  he  had  a  claim  to  be  consulted, 
contrasted  too  sharply  with  the  cordial  relations  he  had 
had  with  Mr  Gladstone  in  these  matters,  as  he  himself 
mentions  on  one  occasion  in  his  Diary : — 

Heard  that  X.  is  to  be  Bishop  of  Y. ;  as  we  have  a  Conserva- 
tive Government  and  he  is  a  High  Churchman,  neither  he  nor 
the  Premier  vouchsafe  to  communicate  with  me  either  before  or 
after.  (Never  did.)  A  Liberal  Government  or  an  Evangelical  or 
Broad  Church  Bishop  always  does.  Mr  Gladstone  never  failed 
to  consult  about  either  Episcopal  or  lower  dignities  beforehand 
with  me.  The  fact  is  that  Erastianism  is  far  more  of  a  Conserva- 
tive than  of  a  Radical  error,  and  it  comes  out  even  thus. 

And  on  another  occasion  he  wrote : — 

Mr  Gladstone  invariably  consulted  me  as  to  who  the  eligible 
people  were,  and  on  one  occasion  sent  his  Secretary,  Hamilton, 
down  to  Addington  to  say  that,  unless  I  would  give  a  distinct 
opinion  as  between  two  men  whom  I  had  mentioned,  no  nomination 
would  be  made.  But  now  a  Conservative  Government  believes 
the  Church  so  sure  to  side  with  it,  that  it  takes  no  pains  and 
exhibits  no  principles. 

It  may  be  said,  too,  that  there  is  a  universal  tendency, 
naturally  exaggerated  in  one  of  my  father's  eager  habit  of 
mind,  to  overvalue  any  support  which  exceeds  expectation. 


1891-1896  THE  CHURCH  AND  POLITICAL  PARTIES  loi 

and  to  undervalue  that,  which  though  absolutely  greater, 
is  less  than  was  anticipated.  Further,  my  father  was  no 
diplomatist :  he  could  rule  with  diligence  and  tact ;  but  he 
had  been  trained  to  rule,  and  he  found  it  difficult  to  meet 
men  of  influence  on  equal  terms,  especially  when  he  in 
the  least  degree  suspected  any  lack  of  sympathy,  any 
indifference  to  the  questions  about  which  he  himself  felt 
so  ardently. 

During  the  ten  years  that  the  Archbishop  had  been 
working  in  Parliament  to  obtain  legal  power  for  the 
Church  to  reform  herself,  the  Liberals  had,  it  is  true,  been 
doing  work  which  in  the  eyes  of  most  Churchmen,  and 
assuredly  in  those  of  my  father,  would  greatly  injure  the 
Church — would  be  even  anti-religious.  The  Disestablish- 
ment of  the  Church  in  Wales,  to  which  he  had  opposed 
himself  heart  and  soul,  had  been  attempted  and  the 
attempt  had  failed.  And  on  the  other  hand  few  would 
deny  that  such  movement  in  the  direction  of  Ecclesiastical 
Legislation  as  was  made  at  all  by  the  Conservative  party 
was  in  favour  of  the  Church. 

But  the  fact  remains  that  when  reform  was  most  vital, 
where  it  was  a  question,  not  of  organisation  or  of  doctrine, 
but  of  letting  men  of  evil  life  continue  to  hold  office  as 
ministers  of  religion  or  of  letting  spiritual  offices  be  bought 
and  sold,  where  he  hoped  to  find  the  Conservative  party 
zealous  he  found  it,  as  he  thought,  lukewarm  ;  while,  where 
he  feared  the  opposition  of  extreme  Radicals,  he  found  not 
only  the  continued  earnest  support  of  Mr  Gladstone,  but 
a  cordiality  of  leaders  which  held  the  objectors  in  check. 
Though  Mr  Smith,  with  every  personal  desire  that  the 
Bills  should  become  law,  first  worked  with  ability  and 
patience  for  them  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
Mr  Balfour's  skilful  leadership  ultimately  brought  them 
to  a  successful  issue ;    though  the  Bills  received  general 


I02  CONSERVATIVE   SUPPORT  aet.  63-67 

support  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  passed  there  many- 
times  before  they  became  law,  yet  my  father,  perhaps 
justly,  but  at  least  justifiably,  felt  that  there  was  a  want 
of  earnestness  about  the  general  policy  of  the  party  on 
the  subject. 

It  will  be  remembered  how  again  and  again  he  had  to 
appeal  to  the  promise  of  the  Government  to  pass  the 
Clergy  Discipline  Bill  through  the  Lower  House,  or  to 
make  the  Patronage  Bill  a  Government  measure,  and  how 
often  this  appeal  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  The 
Clergy  Discipline  Bill  had  three  times  passed  the  Upper 
House  before,  in  the  year  1892,  with  the  warm  help  of  Mr 
Gladstone, — though  bitterly  opposed  by  a  small  section  of 
the  Welsh  Radicals, — it  was  taken  through  the  Commons 
by  a  Conservative  Government.  In  1893  and  1894 — years 
of  the  struggle  with  threatened  Disestablishment  in  Wales, 
— in  1895  and  1896  under  a  Conservative  Government,  he 
introduced  the  Patronage  Bill,  and  it  was  not  until  after 
his  death  that  it  was  passed  as  the  Benefices  Bill  in  1897. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  in  a  moment,  not  of  despair, 
but  perhaps  of  indiscriminate  indignation,  he  wrote  "  in 
eight  or  ten  years  there  has  been  constant  effort... it  is 
entirely  owing  to  the  Government  that  all  effort  fails " ; 
that  he  should  say  with  humorous  bitterness  to  a  friend 
that  the  Radical  party  chastised  the  Church  with  whips, 
but  the  Conservatives  with  scorpions  ;  nor  that  he  often 
said,  both  in  his  private  letters  and  in  conversation  with 
intimate  friends,  that,  by  a  show  of  indifference  in  Church 
matters,  the  Conservative  party  was  in  danger  of  alienating 
the  sympathy  of  a  large  and  influential  body  of  Clergy  and 
Churchmen — an  alienation  which  he  thought  would  be 
disastrous  to  the  best  interests  of  religion,  and  go  far  to 
neutralise  the  efforts  of  serious-minded  men,  even  in  matters 
about  which  they  were  substantially  agreed.     In  fact  he 


1892-1896  POLITICS    OF   THE    CLERGY  103 

dimly  anticipated  that  if  such  a  state  of  things  continued, 
a  large  and  influential  body  of  clergy  and  ardent  Church- 
men would  cease  to  support  the  Conservative  party,  and 
that  the  Church  would  be  thrown  over  to  the  Liberal  side, 
— a  result  which  he  would  greatly  have  regretted.  He 
thought  that  it  would  be  argued  that  Radical  politicians  at 
least  endeavoured  to  give  the  Church  her  due  ;  that  they 
recognised  Churchmen  as  a  large  and  influential  section  of 
the  nation,  worth  conciliating,  while  the  conviction  was 
gaining  ground  that  the  Conservative  Government  regarded 
Churchmen  as  inalienable  dependents,  whose  support  was 
so  certain  that  it  would  not  be  affected  by  coldness  or  even 
indifference. 

But  the  long  struggle  has  not  been  without  fruit.  The 
Patronage  Bill  was  substantially  that  which,  as  the  Bene- 
fices BilP,  became  law  in   1898. 

At  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Lords  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  said  : — 

******** 
I  think  that  amid  the  tributes  that  have  been  borne  to-night, 
and  rightly  borne,  to  the  work  of  Archbishop  Magee  in  bringing 
public  attention  to  bear  on  this  subject,  we  ought  not  to  forget 
the  yet  greater  work  of  Archbishop  Benson.  Year  after  year  he 
brought  this  matter  forward,  and  spent  long  months  beforehand 

^  The  Benefices  Act,  1898,  to  summarise  briefly  its  provisions,  requires 
sale  of  advowsons  to  be  registered,  forbids  sale  of  next  presentations,  or  sale 
by  auction  of  any  right  of  patronage  (except  as  part  of  an  estate),  and  in- 
validates agreement  to  exercise  a  right  of  patronage  in  favour  of  a  particular 
person.  The  new  declaration  against  simony  is  of  a  very  stringent  character. 
Among  the  new  grounds  for  the  Bishop's  refusal  to  institute  are  that  three 
years  have  not  elapsed  since  the  presentee  was  ordained  deacon,  physical  and 
mental  infirmity,  evil  life,  grave  pecuniary  embarrassment,  and  misconduct  or 
neglect  of  duty  in  an  ecclesiastical  office.  A  Bishop  is  not  to  collate,  institute 
or  admit  to  a  benefice  until  one  month  after  his  intention  to  do  so  has  been 
notified  to  the  churchwardens,  who  are  to  give  the  notice  publicity.  Benefices, 
formerly  donative,  are,  after  1898,  to  be  presentative.  Mr  Lely,  in  his  notes 
on  the  Act,  says  that  about  20  bills  of  this  kind  have  been  introduced  since 
the  report  of  the  Patronage  Committee  in  1879. 


I04  ULTIMATE    RESULTS  aet.  67 

in  working  with  others,  in  preparation  for  the  various  Bills  which 
were  successively  introduced,  and  if  to  Archbishop  Magee  is  due 
the  credit  of  having  focussed  public  opinion  on  this  subject,  to 
Archbishop  Benson  may  be  attributed  the  credit  of  having  main- 
tained that  interest  at  a  high  level  and  for  having  looked  after  the 
subject  perseveringly  from  year  to  year. 

Thus  the  labour  of  so  many  years,  through  disappoint- 
ments which  never  daunted  or  discouraged  him,  has  not 
been  in  vain. 


CHAPTER    III. 

LETTERS   AND    DIARIES. 

"A  sad  wise  valour  is  the  brave  complexion 
That  leads  the  van,  and  swallows  up  the  cities.^'' 

Geo.  Herbert. 

The  year  1886  began  with  a  bad  feverish  attack:  the 
Archbishop  writes  on  January  9th  : — • 

To-day  for  the  first  time  was  allowed  to  drag  out  of  bed  into 
another  room.  The  year  has  begun  strangely  with  almost  a 
fortnight  passed  in  an  uneasy  rest — no  sense  that  one  needed  it, 
yet  an  inability  absolute  and  an  almost  equal  unwillingness  to 
break  through  it — faces  and  groups  interminable  on  the  walls, 
which  I  wished  to  draw,  and  felt  sure  I  should  always  be  able  to 
see  and  recognise  and  draw.  And  now  I  am  well  I  cannot  see 
one  of  them. 

What  curious  things  these  sick  picturesque  fancies  are — no 
account  given  of  them  really  satisfies  one  after  one  has  been 
once  through  a  week  of  them — so  novel  yet  so  permanent.  The 
punishment  of  a  disembodied  spirit  must  be  a  very  easy  thing  to 
inflict,  when  it  is  so  helpless   under  a  slight  malady. 

Monday,  Jan.  i  \th.  My  New  Year's  Day.  I  have  begun  this 
year  triste  per  augurium,  allowed  to  walk  out  for  half  an  hour  for 
the  first  time  since  they  sent  me  to  bed  with  an  unaccountable 
fever  on  Dec.  29th.  All  has  gone  dreamily  since  then.  The 
long  nights,  and  the  wonderful  snow  landscapes  of  the  short  days 
through  the  windows,  or  by  the  help  of  the  mirrors^,  and  a  terrible 

^  He  had  a  long  mirror  placed  each  day  near  his  bed  at  such  an  angle  that 
he  could  see,  by  reflection,  a  beautiful  beech-tree  on  the  lawn,  which  was 
covered  with  snow. 


io6  COMMUNINGS   OF   A    DAY  aet.  56 

half  sense  of  how  impossible  it  would  be  to  give  God  a  heart,  or 
care  about  heart  or  God,  if  it  had  to  be  done  in  illness.  Life 
seems  to  end  at  the  beginning  not  the  end  of  a  sickness  like  this. 

Wife  and  children  perfect  in  sweetness,  and  the  prayers  very 
dear  and  soothing.  But  it  is  a  thought  little  short  of  panic  to 
think  where  one  would  be  without  the  Prayer-book,  where  one 
would  be  if  one  had  only  an  extempore  prayer-man,  and  had  to 
walk  in  his  shallows  instead  of  its  depths. 

He  was  well  enough  to  attend  the  opening  of  Con- 
vocation on  the  13th  of  January;  on  the  i8th  he  went 
down  to  Winchester  to  hold  a  quiet  day  for  Public  School 
Masters  :  he  writes  : — 

Tuesday^  Jan.  -K^th.  I  can  but  put  down  impressions  from 
without  as  they  were  borne  in  on  me. 

It  was  striking  to  have  the  gathering  of  80  men,  headmasters 
and  assistants,  from  ten  great  public  schools,  a  contingent  from 
Eton  of  18,  at  such  a  day  of  Service  as  this.  When  I  was  at 
Wellington  it  would  have  been  utterly  impossible.  How  the  tone 
has  changed  since  then.  Infinitely  more  religious,  infinitely  less 
proud,  infinitely  more  concerned  about  holiness  as  possible  for  our 
boys,  not  a  mere  loud  manliness,  but  a  noble,  gentle,  believing 
manliness.  It  was  most  affecting  to  hear  those  leading  men  sing 
"  Shepherd  Divine,"  and  most  strengthening  to  see  them  receive 
the  Holy  Communion  in  utter  devotion. 

There  has  been  great  nervousness.  We  dared  not  fix  a  rule  of 
silence,  but  we  set  apart  the  Moberly  Library  for  those  who 
wished  to  spend  a  silent  day,  and  whenever  the  talk  at  meals 
reached  a  buzz  I  stood  up  and  read  a  chapter  of  the  Imitation, 
and  it  toned  down.  All  however  now  feel  (I  am  told  some  time 
after)  that  the  silence  was  felt  to  be  a  help,  and  will  become  the 
rule,  and  that  this  gathering  will  be  henceforth  a  regular  one — at 
least  once  in  two  years.  It  has  been  to  us  all  a  time  of  strong 
united  feeling,  and  deep  determination  to  deepen  the  school  life 
of  the  Masters  and  let  that  take  its  own  effect  on  the  boys.  Not 
to  be  stricter  or  more  exacting  with  them,  which  would  be  quite 
wrong,  but  to  be  ourselves  more  really  and  less  ashamedly  Christian 
Churchmen. 

The  addresses  that  he  gave  were  in  part  those  he  had 
given  at  a  Quiet  Day  at  Keble  some  years  before,  but  a 


i886  OPENING   OF   PARLIAMENT  107 

good  deal  revised  and  amplified.  They  were  published 
in  1886  under  the  title  Communings  of  a  Day.  I  never 
saw  him  more  (apparently)  tranquil  than  in  giving  these 
addresses,  which  were  delivered  in  the  College  Chapel : 
he  sat  in  a  chair  at  the  top  of  the  choir  steps,  with  a  tall 
candle  beside  him  when  the  Chapel  was  dark. 

On  the  2 1st  of  January  he  attended  the  opening  of 
Parliament.     He  writes  : — 

Jan.  2  ist.  The  Queen  opened  Parliament.  It  was  a  really  grand 
sight  in  the  House.  As  people  say,  "the  splendours  are  real"  in  such 
a  case.  But  then  the  reality  would  be  as  real  without  them.  And 
mere  symbols  of  symbols  gain  ground  on  symbols,  just  as  symbols 
gain  ground  on  reality.  For  example,  the  Queen  now  wears  only 
a  diminutive  little  model  of  a  crown,  "  Queen  Anne's,"  on  the  top 
of  her  head,  and  the  crimson  and  ermine  mantle,  being  too  heavy 
for  Her  Majesty  to  wear,  has  become  the  dress  of  the  Throne  on 
to  which  it  was  looped  up  before  the  ceremony  for  the  Queen 
merely  to  sit  down  on.  Meantime  her  own  dress  grows  a 
monstrous  black  silk  train  of  many  yards. 

After  so  many  tall  vast  men  had  trooped  in  her  procession 
before  her  into  the  House,  one  was  almost  startled  by  the  smallness 
of  the  figure  which  followed  them.  But  it  is  a  remarkable  small- 
ness indeed,  for  there  was  no  figure  of  them  all  more  stately  in 
demeanour,  or  more  impressive  in  every  way. 

Salisbury,  bearing  sword  of  state,  in  his  robes,  looked  most 
gloomy.  The  Chancellor  read  the  Speech,  which  he  affirmed  to 
be  "in  her  own  words."  The  Princes  were  very  affable  to  all. 
Minnie  and  the  girls  had  seats  in  the  gallery, — Maggie  has  a  vast 
taste  in  pageants — a  pleasant  taste.  The  pictures  in  the  illustrated 
papers  were  as  inaccurate  as  possible — representing  people  in 
wrong  places  and  the  Queen  as  differently  robed.  So  much  for 
the  value  of  "contemporary  records." 

As  I  entered  the  House  in  my  cope  it  flashed  across  me 
amusingly  what  a  pet  I  was  in  with  Jeremie  who  was  Regius 
Professor  when  I  took  my  D.D.  in  1867  at  Cambridge.  He 
sent  the  Bulldog  to  ask  me  whether  I  would  be  admitted  to  my 
degree  in  the  cope  or  the  Doctor's  gown?  This  was  in  the 
Senate  House.  I  laughed  and  said,  "In  the  cope,  for  I  shall 
never  have  one  on  again."    He  instantly  sent  back  word,  "  Regius 


io8  DEATH    OF   HENRY   BRADSHAW  aet.  ^6 

Professor's  compliments,  Sir,  and  he'll  admit  you  in  your  Doctor's 
gown,  as  Dr  Cranmer  wants  to  be  admitted  too,  and  there's  only 
one  cope  here."  The  Bishop's  cope  in  House  of  Lords  is  same  as 
the  copes  at  Cambridge. 

On  the  31st  he  prepared  to  leave  Addington,  which  had 
become  by  this  time  very  dear  to  him :  he  says  : — 

Sunday,  Jan.  31^"/.  Last  walk  alone  round  Addington;  to- 
morrow busy.  Tuesday  to  town.  I  never  saw  sky,  earth  and  trees 
so  wet,  soaking  and  sodden  and  weeping,  and  occasional  causeless 
cold  showers,  as  if  the  clouds  ran  over  in  simple  helplessness. 
We  have  lost  many  branches  of  trees  and  trees  too.  The  swans 
are  very  happy  in  this  melting  of  the  ice  so  as  to  give  them  a 
channel  nearly  all  round  it.  Voraciously  hungry,  but  Madame 
won't  quite  feed  out  of  my  hand,  though  now  very  near  it.  The 
old  fellow  pokes  me  if  I  don't  attend  to  him  fast  enough. 

The  fish  are  all  right  out  of  their  ice  again.  But  I  don't  know 
why  for  the  first  time  they  won't  eat  my  pellets.  Now  it's  calm 
evening  with  bronzy  cumuli,  bronzy  beech  tops,  the  old  yew  black 
and  stiff  and  the  cedars  all  in  motion. 

On  the  nth  of  February  his  beloved  friend,  Henry 
Bradshaw,  Cambridge  University  Librarian,  died.  He  had 
dined  out  with  some  old  friends  the  night  before,  and  was 
found  dead  in  his  chair  next  morning  just  as  he  had  sat 
down  on  returning  home.     The  Archbishop  writes  : — 

Feb.  wth.  My  dearest  friend  Bradshaw  was  found  dead  in 
his  chair  at  King's  this  morning.  He  has  been  my  closest  friend 
for  about  36  years.  The  gentlest,  most  sympathizing,  most  pains- 
taking friend.  He  has  been,  which  is  so  strange,  almost  the  same 
kind  of  friend  to  my  son.  He  had  that  singular  gift,  that  young 
fellows  who  scarcely  had  begun  to  know  him  would  go  to  his 
rooms  and  tell  him  all  about  themselves — get  his  fatherly  advice 
as  if  by  instinct.  He  has  been  a  great  Christian  power  in 
King's.  A  layman  devoted  to  the  faith,  and  deeply  read  in  all 
modern  literature,  as  well  as  ancient.  His  lore,  and  the  quiet  way 
in  which  it  was  acquired,  were  equally  astonishing.  He  declared 
that  the  most  interesting  discoveries  he  made  were  all  due  to 
the  habit  of  endeavouring  to  answer  in  the  fullest,  most  accurate 
way  every  literary  question  that  was  put  to  him.     This  led  him 


i886  FUNERAL   OF    HENRY   BRADSHAW  109 

into  the  minutest  investigation,  and  he  remembered  everything. 
He  wrote  down  Uttle,  so  that  the  learning  which  has  often 
astonished  Westcott  and  Lightfoot  and  was  always  ready  on  the 
instant,  has  I  fear  almost  wholly  died  with  him.  Whatever  he 
may  have  written  is  nothing  to  what  he  knew.  "  Curious  you 
should  ask  me  that,"  was  his  frequent  answer  to  me,  "  I  happen 
to  have  been  just  looking  it  up  and  thinking  about  it."  I  once 
observed  to  him  that  the  cathedral  statutes  of  Rouen  must  have 
been  the  models  on  which  those  of  Lincoln,  Salisbury  and  York, 
were  framed ;  he  in  a  few  days  after  told  me  that  Bayeux  was 
the  real  fountain;  that  Bayeux'  was  a  great  capital  from  which 
Rouen  itself  had  borrowed  all — and  he  supported  this  with  a 
number  of  delicate  conclusive  proofs, — and  also  showed  me  how, 
by  written  notes  exhibiting  the  constitution  of  every  cathedral  in 
France,  with  the  great  varieties  of  the  stream  of  tradition  which 
varied  the  principales  personae  and  their  relative  rank  so  ex- 
ceedingly. But  there  are  many  other  notes  even  too  high  for  any 
but  himself  to  understand  and  explain  :  and  he  was  so  perpetually 
acquiring  scholarly  and  most  accurate  knowledge,  that  he  scarcely 
ever  brought  himself  to  write  it  out.  He  is  an  irreparable  loss  to 
learning.  It  is  inconceivable  that  he  is  really  no  more  to  haunt 
the  College  which  he  loved  so  and  was  so  loved  in — and  no  more 
to  supply  the  sense  of  there  being  one  on  whom  one  could  rest  in 
feeling  and  in  mind  equally. 

On  the  15th  the  Archbishop  attended  the  funeral.  He 
v^^rites : — 

Found  I  could  just  reach  Cambridge  for  Henry  Bradshaw's 
funeral  in  King's  and  return.  It  was  a  most  touching  and  most 
impressive  sight.  Numbers  of  our  contemporaries  still  by  face 
known  to  me,  and  then  generation  after  generation  to  the  youngest 
undergraduates.  The  windows,  of  which  he  knew  every  pane  and 
displaced  fragment,  never  glowed  so  brightly,  so  that  the  roof  was 
not  gloomy  but  grey  like  the  outside  sky.  He  lies  close  to 
Charles  Simeon  in  a  vault.  The  flowers  and  the  music  all  so 
dear  to  him  seemed  to  receive  him  to  themselves  for  another 
world,  in  which  if  his  "  knowledge  and  his  tongues  "  vanish  away, 
— it  can  only  be  as  his  faith  is  swallowed  up  into  sight.  So 
Christianly  acquired,  so  Christianly  used,  they  have  some  Christian 

^  V.  Lincoln  Cathedral  Statutes,  Bradshaw  and  Wordsworth,  Pt.  I.  Liber 
Niger,  35. 


no  HOUSE   OF   LAYMEN  aet.  56 

fulfilment.  The  old  Provost  with  his  bright  eyes  was  able  to  sit 
in  his  stall  though  not  to  move  from  it. 

On  the  1 6th  he  opened  Convocation  and  the  intended 
Church  Patronage  Bill  was  discussed.  Other  Church 
Reforms  had  been  suggested  and  the  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough made  a  pungent  speech  on  them;  speaking  with 
high  scorn  of  the  "crazes,"  as  he  called  them,  of  Mr  Albert 
Grey^  and  others,  "  It  is  absurd,"  he  said,  "  to  think  that 
over  200  sects  existing  in  England  can  be  united  under 
a  flapping  and  flabby  umbrella  to  be  called  the  National 
Church." 

On  the  same  day  met  for  the  first  time  the  new  House 
of  Laymen,  the  Archbishop's  own  creation.  It  was  elected 
by  the  Diocesan  Conferences,  but  neither  possessed  nor 
possesses  any  legislative  or  originative  power  :  it  was  in 
fact  "  for  counsel."     Lord  Selborne  was  the  first  chairman. 

The  position  of  the  laity  in  the  Church  of  England — 
in  works,  in  consultation,  in  individual  influence,  were 
points  on  which  my  father  was  constantly  laying  stress. 
"The  Production  of  Good  is  the  work  of  the  whole  Church; 
St  Peter  calls  this  work  the  Sacrificial  offering  of  the 
'  Spiritual  House  '  or  '  Pure  Priesthood  '  which  is  his  name 
for  the  entire  Church  of  Laity  and  Clergy^"  "  It  is  the 
Laity  to  whom  he  (St  Peter)  says  that  knowledge  and 
power  of  reasoning  are  a  duty,  but  that  the  effectiveness 
of  their  meaning  must  finally  rest  on  their  personal  char- 
acter. This  has  ever  been  the  thought  of  the  Church  of 
England^" 

Of  that  "grand  person"  the  "old-fashioned  Church  Lay- 
man," he  says,  undoubtedly  with  a  thought  of  the  old 
Yorkshire  days,  "  How  he  excelled  in  every  greatness  of 
spirit  that  belongs  to  common  life.     Let  them  (the  Laity) 

■*  Now  Earl  Grey. 

^  Christ  attd  His  Times,  p.  152. 

^  Ibid.  p.  36. 


i886  MISSION   PREACHING  iii 

set  that  shining,  yet  sober,  pattern  in  the  household  and 
in  the  worlds" 

In  his  opening  address  to  the  House  of  Laymen  he 
said  :  "  The  consultative  bodies  of  Laymen  which  are  now 
to  be  found  in  all  branches  of  the  Anglican  Communion 
carry  us  back  long  ages  to  the  times  when,  before  the 
Italian  Church  over-rode  all  such  promises,  St  Cyprian 
promised  the  faithful  laity  that  he  would  without  their 
assent  do  nothing.... A  Church  which  refers  all  to  primitive 
standards  is  well  able  in  the  conduct  of  affairs  to  pursue 
primitive  principles  in  forms  which  our  own  century  can 
understand  and  use." 

At  the  end  of  February  he  writes  : — 

Went  for  a  few  minutes  to  hear  an  address  to  Working  Men 
this  afternoon  at  a  Mission  just  begun.  It  is  to  be  a  very 
laborious  mission.  The  Missioner  very  agreeable  in  his  manner 
of  speaking,  and  very  facile.  He  represented  to  the  Working 
Men  our  Lord  as  looking  down  through  ages  and  seeing  each 
soul,  and  saying  to  the  Father,  "This  poor  sinner's  hands,  feet, 
heart,  etc.  are  very  full  of  sin  and  self  and  evil ;  take  my  hands. 
Father,  and  pierce  them  through  with  nails,  instead  of  his  hands- — 
my  feet  for  his  feet — take  my  heart  and  pierce  it  through  and 
through  with  a  spear,  that  his  heart  may  be  delivered."  There  is 
no  warrant  of  Scripture  for  this  tenor  of  doctrine,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that  at  every  word  the  working  man  would  bristle  with 
rough  and  ready  replies.  This  evening  we  had  a  mission  service 
with  a  full  Church.  I  fear  the  plans  of  conducting  them  are 
wearing  very  thin.  There  was  too  much  of  mechanical  up  and 
down  movement  for  silent  prayer,  closing  eyes,  singing  fragments 
of  hymns,  etc.,  and  too  much  teaching  for  an  address.  And  the 
language  which  it  is  thought  proper  to  adopt  in  the  mission 
hymns,  the  want  of  dignity,  the  familiarity  with  "our  great  God," 
and  the  incessant  entreaties  of  the  preachers  "just"  to  do  this, 
"just  to  believe,"  "just  to  accept,"  "just  to  kneel  down  a  moment," 
and  the  way  in  which,  when  arguments  are  a  little  difficult,  a 
modern  missioner  shirks  them,  and  keeps  exclaiming  "  I  want 

^  Fishers  of  Men,  p.  122. 


112  HOUSE   OF   LAYMEN  aet.  56 

you  to  cultivate  habits  of  prayer,"  "I  want  you"  to  this  and  that, 
"I  want  you  to  give  your  heart  now  to  God,"  are  quite  ruining  the 
decent  language  of  piety. 

Meantime  in  Hyde  Park  a  great  democratic  demonstration 
again — they  were  allowed  their  say.  But  in  the  final  dispersal  of 
the  crowd  the  police  are  charged  with  much  ferocity. 

On  the  2nd  of  March  he  notes  in  his  Diary  with  regard 
to  the  new  House  of  Laymen  : — 

Tuesday,  March  2nd. — On  one  of  these  days  Mr  Picton'  asked 
in  the  House  of  Commons  whether  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
had  formed  a  Third  House  of  Convocation — whether  he  had 
taken  legal  opinion  on  subject  of  legality — whether  he  had  not 
in  fact  violated  a  statute  of  Henry  VHL  and  was  not,  in  common 
with  all  Convocation  apparently,  liable  to  imprisonment  and  fine 
at  Her  Majesty's  pleasure.  I  put  together  a  few  things  of  course 
and  ordered  my  barge  in  proper  form  to  be  ready  when  I  should 
be  committed  to  the  Tower,  and  gave  Mr  Childers^  a  Memo- 
randum of  what  to  say  in  answer  to  Picton.  This  was  unluckily 
so  satisfactory  that  I  had  to  countermand  the  barge. 

On  the   nth  he  writes: — 

Thursday. — All  day  have  been  in  a  cloud  and  out  of  heart 
because  I  thought  quite  early  in  the  day  that  a  mean  slight 
was  put  on  me  by  someone.  If  it  is  physical,  it  is  very  un- 
pleasant and  very  closely  tied  up  to  the  moral.  If  it  is  moral, 
it  undoubtedly  has  a  physical  effect.  My  mere  thoughts  derange 
several  organs  at  least  slightly.  My  feeling  moves  particles  of 
matter  rapidly  and  not  through  any  secondary  exertion  of  muscle. 

On  April  2nd  Archbishop  Trench  of  Dublin'  was 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey.  My  father  writes  in  his 
Diary  : — 

Friday,  April  2nd. — Archbishop  of  Dublin  buried  in  West- 
minster Abbey.  A  well-ordered  and  soberly  touching  service — 
many  children  and  grandchildren — large  devout  crowd.  When 
it  was  over,  the  black  spread  on  the  nave  floor,  with  a  few  white 
scattered  petals,  a  little  earth  that  had  fallen  from  the  sexton's 

^  M.P.  for  Leicester. 

^  Then  Home  Secretary. 

^  Formerly  Dean  of  Westminster. 


i886  DEATH    OF   ARCHBISHOP   TRENCH  113 

hand,  and  a  few  footmarks,  made  a  parable.  I  do  not  think 
his  poems  are  well  enough  appreciated.  They  are  beautiful  in 
feeling,  strong  and  classical  in  expression,  and  mount  often  to 
no  small  pathos.  It  is  strange  to  think  how  dispirited  and 
crushed  he  was  in  every  one's  view  at  the  beginning  of  dis- 
establishment, and  yet  with  how  firm  and  manly  a  heart  he  has 
carried  it  through.  Arthur  Stanley  told  me  once  how  when  he 
was  himself  preaching  in  the  Abbey  on  Ascension  Day  on  the 
Christian  Ministry,  a  sermon  in  which  (he  firmly  believed  that) 
he  said  nothing  but  what  Lightfoot  had  written,  "nothing,  I 
assure  you,  not  a  word  or  syllable,"  he  was  told  afterwards  by 
Bishop  Selwyn  how  Trench  and  he  had  walked  away  from  the 
Abbey,  and,  on  Selwyn's  saying  how  dark  it  had  been  in  the 
Abbey  (there  had  been  thunder).  Trench  replied  in  his  deep 
sepulchral  tones,  "  No  wonder  that  while  such  doctrines  were 
being  enunciated  from  the  pulpit  of  the  Abbey,  the  heavens  were 
overhung  with  a  supernatural  blackness." 

On  Sunday  Rowsell  preached  with  great  enthusiasm  on  the 
Trinity  group  to  which  he  (Trench)  belonged,  but  spoke  of 
Arnold  having  had  a  great  influence  on  him.  This  I  doubt 
wholly — I  don't  think  their  spirits  were  at  all  attractive  to  each 
other. 

On  April  5th  he  writes  : — 

Monday. — Dined  at  Grillions — Ashbourne',  Harrowby,  A. 
Mills,  Cranbrook,  Sir  T.  Acland,  Boehm,  Derby,  S.  Walpole. 

I  was  asked  point  blank  the  question  whether  every  Friday 
in  Lambeth  Chapel  "  an  eminent  statesman "  was  prayed  for 
"that  he  might  do  the  work  of  Nehemiah  in  England."  Besides 
the  complete  inaccuracy  of  the  petition's  wording,  which  is  "  that 
a  husband  in  a  position  of  influence  may  be  like  Nehemiah  in 
faith  and  purpose,"  I  thought  it  so  out  of  decent  taste  that  I 
only  replied,  "that  I  had  heard  something  like  it  there." 

The  petition^  is  sent  anonymously,  and  I  have  no  reason  to 

believe  it  to  be  asked  for  by  X .     But  as  Lord  Y said, 

X —  is  perhaps   "the  only  statesman  who  would  so  describe 

himself" — or  wish   to   have  his   work   prayed   for   in  church. 

^  Now  Lord  Chancellor  of  Ireland. 

^  Subjects  for  intercession  were  sent  anonymously  by  those  who  attended 
the  addresses  for  Ladies  in  Lambeth  Chapel. 

B.  II.  8 


114  BELIEF    IN    MIRACLES  aet.  56 


To  Professor   Westcott. 

On  the  case  of  a  layman  who  desired  to  be  ordained,  but 
could  not  subscribe  to  the  belief  in  the  Historical 
character  of  Miracles. 

Lambeth  Palace. 

April  20,  1886. 
My  Dear  Westcott, 

I  was   going   to  write  to  you  to-day  about  another 

matter.     Mr  A ,  whom  you  know,  and  who  is  (I  think)  a  very 

interesting  man  in  some  ways,  has  always  had  a  great  yearning, 
which  much  increases  upon  him,  to  be  a  clergyman. 

In  one  side  of  Belief  he  seems  to  be  very  strong.  He  says 
that  he  can  follow  every  word  of  the  Nicene  Creed  with  full  faith. 
If  it  were  not  so  he  could  not  wish  to  be  in  Orders.  Every  grace 
and  gift  comes  from  the  Father  through  Christ.  The  2o<^ia'  and 
Ao'-yos'  are  to  him  essential  parts  of  belief  in  God; — and  Christ  is 
that  Adyo?;  He  is,  not  was,  man. 

But  (from  the  nature  of  his  work  possibly)  he  seems  to  me  to 
be  exactly  where  he  was  after  he  took  his  degree.  He  has  the 
difficulties  which  then  prevented  so  many  men  from  taking  Orders 
in  a  perhaps  modified  form.  The  "miraculous,"  the  "supernatural" 
seem  to  him  contradictory  expressions  to  what  he  holds.  The 
Historical  Resurrection  seems  to  him  unnecessary.  He  does  not 
know  what  the  Disciples  saw  or  thought  they  saw  and  heard — 
I  asked  why  are  they  not  as  good  witnesses  for  what  was  after  the 
Crucifixion  as  before,  and  whether  they  were  not  better  witnesses 
than  any  scientific  people  with  a  theory  could  be,  and  whether  He 
was  not  historical  necessarily  in  just  the  same  sense  as  we  are. 
Without  attempting  to  say  what  we  are  as  expressions  of  something 
within,  or  beyond  or  above,  was  it  not  essential  that  there  should 
be  a  similar  expression  in  the  Christ  of  whatever  was  beyond  that 
which  was  sensible  ? 

I  did  not  argue  to  convince  but  only  to  ascertain — and  I 
think  I  am  not  clear  as  to  what  he  means  by  "Historical"  or 
"Not  Historical."  I  ought  to  say  that  he  once  said  "he  thought 
that  the  Body  of  Our  Lord  must  be  in  this  planet,"  but  I  am  not 
sure  he  meant  it.    For  he  did  not  meet  the  question  of  the  evidence 

^  The  Wisdom — the  Word. 


i886  DECEASED   WIFE'S   SISTER   BILL  115 

that  It  was  not  in  the  Tomb,  while  there  was  also  good  reason  to 
believe  that  It,   "glorified,"  was  elsewhere. 

I  do  not  know  whether  he  can  be  helped.  But  if  so  he  is  well 
worth  helping.  He  is  a  most  earnest,  humble,  loving,  laborious 
man.  And  his  yearning  to  work  for  men's  souls,  and  for  the 
Church  to  which  he  says  his  whole  heart  is  devoted,  is  very 
touching.     If  anyone  could  help  him  you  could. 

And  he  would,  he  said  in  answer  to  my  ventured  question,  be 
very  glad  and  grateful  if  you  would  talk  to  him.  I  think  his 
point  is  simply  this.  Could  a  Bishop  ordain  him  if  he  signed  all 
declarations  or  articles  required,  leaving  to  him  the  responsibility 
of  the  sense  attached  to  them  in  his  own  belief?  I  said  a  Bishop 
was  bound  not  to  be  content  with  the  outside;  but  that  it  still 
remained  to  judge  whether  his  position  was  such  as  any  Bishop 
could  accept  after  looking  at  it  to  a  certain  extent,  of  which 
extent  the  Bishop  must  be  the  judge. 

This  is  what  you  could  help  me  to  settle.  And  in  so  doing 
you  might  I  think  help  a  very  beautiful  soul  in  perplexity. 

I  ought  to  say  that  he  seems  to  be  partly  misled  by  words — 
and  in  himself  to  suffer  from  the  more  conventionalised  "uncon- 
ventionalism  "  of  the  period  to  which  he  belonged — or  belongs. 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 


On  May  13th  he  introduced  the  Church  Patronage  Bill 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  in  a  practical  speech,  full  of  details 
and  with  little  attempt  at  rhetoric.  He  was  complimented 
by  Lord  Selborne  and  Lord  Salisbury  upon  the  infinity  of 
care  spent  on  the  details  of  the  Bill,  which  was  read  a 
second  time  and  referred  to  a  Select  Committee. 

On  the  24th  May  the  Deceased  Wife's  Sister  Bill 
was  brought  forward  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  the  Duke 
of  St  Albans  and  opposed  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  The 
Archbishop  spoke  against  it,  resting  his  case  on  social 
grounds,  on  which,  and  not  on  scriptural  grounds,  he  based 
his  objection  to  the  measure,  although  he  held  in  his 
speech  that  a  large  number  of  good  people  in  the  country 


ii6  DEATH   OF   ROBERT   SIDGWICK  aet.  56 

would  be  aggrieved  on  scriptural  grounds.     It  was  thrown 
out  by  a  majority  of  twenty-two. 

To  a  friend  who  had  lost  a  child. 

Jujie  22,  1886. 

We  do  feel  deeply  about  this  your  first  separation.  Yet  when 
one's  aequales  or  children  begin  to  join  the  Plures  the  world  grows 
larger  and  more  beautiful.     It  is  the  first  glimpse  of  %dXa<j<ja '. 

On  July   1st  he  writes  : — 

Thursday.  Robert  Hodgson  Sidgwick  died  at  his  house,  the 
Raikes,  Skipton — my  father's  first  cousin  and  my  wife's  uncle. 
It  would  be  hard  for  me  to  say  how  much  I  think  my  early  life 
owed  him.  He  first  laid  hold  of  me  at  that  most  difficult  age 
of  15.  Then  his  tall  commanding  figure  and  his  most  kindly 
gentle  face  and  manner, — he  grew  more  and  more  like  Colonel 
Newcome  as  he  grew  older,  until  the  picture  of  Colonel  Newcome 
with  the  little  child,  "  Have  you  killed  many  men  with  this 
sword?"  might  have  been  simply  an  accurate  sketch  of  him. 
In  the  old  days  at  Skipton  Castle,  walks  and  talks  with  him,  and 
long  sayings  of  quantities  of  poems,  and  the  absolutely  perfect 
sweetness  of  his  eyes  and  tone  of  voice,  while  he  was  such  a 
great  manly  fellow,  were  the  most  helpful  things  to  a  fatherless 
and  big-brotherless  slip  of  a  boy.  He  was  in  early  middle  life 
moved  by  many  doubts  and  uncertainties  then  rife,  and  with 
the  perfect  candour  of  his  nature  exprest  and  looked  the  sadness 
which  haziness  brought  with  it,  as  to  so  many  men  of  his  standing. 
He  settled  back  with  much  thought  and  pains  into  a  contem- 
plative devout  Churchman  to  whom  the  daily  prayers  of  the 
Church  and  the  weekly  early  Communion  were  necessary  parts 
of  life.  Not  long  since,  some  faction  having  sprung  up  which 
desired  to  exhibit  him  on  one  or  other  side,  he  wrote,  "  Dear 
Sir,  I  have  long  thought  it  good  in  itself  and  beneficial  to  people 
in  general  to  magnify  the  matters  of  agreement  and  to  make 
little  of  the  points  of  difference  between  myself  and  others.  As 
I  grow  older  I  see  less  and  less  reason  to  depart  from  this  habit." 
He  had  done  all  he  could  to  persuade  his  poorer  neighbours  to 
give  up  the  ostentatious  expensive  funerals  which  they  were  fond 

^  The  Sea. 


i886  MANSION    HOUSE  117 

of.  He  directed  that  he  should  be  buried  in  one  coffin  to  be 
made  of  plain  white  deal  and  drawn  in  the  hearse  provided 
for  the  parish,  and  the  funeral  to  be  attended  by  his  children 
only,  and  the  difference  between  the  cost  of  this  and  of  a  costly 
funeral  to  be  given  to  the  poor.  But  the  rest  of  his  will  he  could 
not  enforce,  and  the  procession  of  people  on  foot  and  of  carriages 
was  a  spectacle  unknown  in  Skipton  before. 

On  July  5th  he  says : — 

We  had  the  Russian  Choir  to  sing  in  the  gallery  of  the  Chapel 
to  a  large  gathering  of  appreciative  friends.  We  had  collect 
before,  prayer  for  unity  after.  Certainly  no  sound  of  human 
voices  ever  so  surprised  me  before.  They  sang  sometimes  like 
the  deepest  organ  roll — and  sometimes  softened  their  voices 
gently  down  till  it  was  like  a  summer  sea  on  smooth  sand.  I 
could  not  conceive  it  possible  for  them  to  sing  of  the  entombment 
of  Christ  as  they  did  sing,  without  being  better  men  for  such 
cultivation  of  sympathetic  utterance. 

The  peasantry  part  of  the  Choir  (who  were  about  fifty)  sang 
to  us  afterwards  in  the  Library  national  songs.  There  is  a 
plaintiveness  in  all. 

On  the  7th  he  dined  at  the  annual  dinner  given  by 
the  Lord  Mayor  at  the  Mansion  House  to  the  Bishops. 
He  writes : — 

Wednesday,  July  ']th.- — Dined  at  Mansion  House  and  spoke 
feebly.  So  did  everyone.  There  was  less  warmth  than  I  re- 
member before — everyone  in  fact  is  out  of  heart.  It  is  surprising 
how  meekly  and  dispiritedly  people  take  the  present  prospects, 
and  I  think  it  is  an  uncomfortable  symptom.  Mrs  Gladstone 
told  me  the  other  day  that  heavy  as  Mr  Gladstone's  work  has 
been  over  this  Home  Rule  Bill,  and  sad  as  the  separation  of 
friends  has  been,  she  has  never  heard  him  say  what  pure  weariness 
might  so  easily  bring  out,  "I  wish  I  had  never  taken  it  up," 
or  "I  wish  I  could  be  rid  of  it,"  or  "  I  might  have  left  it  to  those 
who  come  after  me."  She  added,  "  What  a  thing  to  have  a  good 
conscience  like  his  !" 

In  the  course  of  July  he  went  down  to  Addington, 
tired  and  dispirited.     On  the  2nd  of  August  he  went  to 


ii8  FERDINAND    DE    ROTHSCHILD  aet.  57 

stay  with  Baron  Ferdinand  de  Rothschild.     He   writes  a 
long  account  of  the  visit : — 

Tuesday,  August  T,rd. — Went  with  Minnie  yesterday  to  Baron 
Ferdinand  de  Rothschild '  at  Waddesdon.  A  delightful  party — the 
Speaker,  Mrs  and  Miss  Peel,  the  German  Ambassador  (Hatzfeldt), 
Count  Metternich,  Mr  Burke,  Sir  Philip  Currie,  Lady  Sophia 
Macnamara,  Sir  H.  and  Lady  Thompson. 

It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  see  such  roads,  such  planting,  such 
building — but  oh  the  miserable  existences  beyond  the  charmed 
circle  of  money.  No  wonder  they  '■'■  gazis  i?ihiant'^,"  as  alas  they 
do.  Only  the  owners  of  it  seem  to  feel,  that  what  it  can  do  is 
less  by  infinity  than  what  it  can't. 

I  had  a  very  long  interesting  talk  with  Baron  Ferdinand  last 
night  and  this  morning.  He  told  me  he  had  read  "thousands 
of  times "  and  should  incessantly  read  "  Genesis,  Exodus,  and 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  They  contained  all  truth.  He  was 
much  shocked  with  a  conversation  lately  held  there  with  a  man, 
who  had  maintained  to  him  for  hours  that  the  Greek  mythology 
was  in  its  essence  identical  with  the  Hebrew  Revelation.  On  the 
contrary  Ferdinand  maintained  no  two  religions  were  in  essence 
more  diverse — the  one  distilled  out  of  materialism,  an  upgrowth 
from  below,  and  never  cleared  of  materialism — the  other  abso- 
lutely from  above,  and  all  that  was  material  merely  moulded  in 
His  Hand.  I  perceive  that  his  charities  must  be  immense ;  he 
made  light  of  them  and  treated  them  simply  as  matter  of  duty. 
He  takes  human  nature  as  no  standard  at  all,  and  no  guide, 
"  If  you  wait  for  gratitude  you  will  never  do  any  good." 

August  \th.  I  came  here  reluctantly.  Everybody  has  been 
most  interesting,  and  to-day  we  return  from  our  astonishingly 
delightful  visit  to  Baron  Ferdinand. 

To  the  Rev.  Canon  Hole. 

{On  Lincoln  work.) 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

Aug.  30M,  1886. 
My  dear  Friend, 

How   rejoiced    I   was  when  you   came   to   dear  old 
Lincoln  to  lecture  to  the  working  men  with  whom  I  had  such 

1  Baron  Ferdinand  de  Rothschild  died  Dec.  17,  1898. 
*  Gaze  enviously  at  the  treasures. 


i886  LINCOLN    WORKING    MEN  119 

happy  relations — still  more,  then,  I  ought  to  be  so  when  you  meet 
their  Church  organisation — in  the  same  spirit  as  ever,  only  moving 
on  to  yet  higher  and  higher  things. 

Tell  them  my  hours  with  them  were  and  always  must  be 
among  the  very  happiest  of  my  life.  They  did  f7ie  good  and  have 
been  fruitful  to  me  in  thoughts  and  affections. 

Tell  them  from  me  there  are  no  such  Churchmen  as  working 
men  when  once  they  "see  it" — and  tell  them  that  I  perhaps  may 
be  pardoned  for  thinking  there  ought  to  be  no  such  working  man- 
so  strong  of  principle  and  taking  so  high  a  view  of  working  man's 
life  and  of  his  own  progress  and  of  his  power  for  others — as 
the  Churchman. 

Tell  them  that  none  can  be  so  charitable  in  spirit  to  all  who 
differ  from  the  Churchmen — no  others  can  afford  to  be  so  charit- 
able— theirs  is  not  a  negative  destructive  creed,  but  possessing  as 
it  does  truths  and  histories  and  reasons,  only  welcomes  the 
narrower  truths  and  supplements  them. 

Tell  them  the  best  work  of  the  working  man,  which  all  his 
other  work  fits  into,  is  when  he  and  his  wife  live  the  life,  and 
bring  up  their  children  in  that  daily  life  and  Sunday  life  which  the 
Church  of  England  sets  before  us. 

That  is  the  way  to  be  fit  for  "whatever  state  of  life  it  shall 
please  God  to  call  them  to"  as  the  Church  Catechism  says  (not 
as  enemies  pervert  it  "has  pleased"). 

Tell  them  the  names  of  Duncan  Mclnnes,  George  Richardson, 
and  the  rest  down  to  Andrew  Hall,  Chairman,  are  constantly 
before  me  on  a  certain  document,  and  that  I  look  on  those  good 
few  as  the  representatives  to  me  of  a  well-beloved  body.  To  all 
I  trust  the  C.E.W.M.S.  will  render  truest  service. 

Yours  ever  affectionately, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

We  went  for  August  to  Bamborough  Castle  in  North- 
umberland, a  romantic  place  belonging  to  Lord   Crew's^ 

1  Nathaniel,  third  and  last  Baron  Crew  of  Stene,  1633 — 1722,  Bishop  of 
Durham,  a  vain  and  subservient  prelate.  He  readily  accepted  the  Deanery  of 
the  Chapel  Royal  on  the  deprivation  of  the  upright  Compton,  and,  unlike 
Sancroft,  served  on  the  revived  Ecclesiastical  Commission.  He  petitioned 
■William  for  forgiveness,  though  excepted  from  the  general  pardon.  His 
posthumous  munificence  was  great.     He  gave  largely  to  his  Diocese  and  to 


I20  BAMBOROUGH    CASTLE  aet.  57 

Trustees,  which  was  let  for  the  summer  months,  and  which 
the  Archbishop  took  for  August  and  September.  He  was 
much  dehghted  by  the  ancient  cool  thick-walled  keep, 
which  was  the  dwelling  house,  its  convenient  library,  the 
armoury,  in  which  we  dined,  and  the  wild  rocky  coast ; 
his  expeditions  were  a  source  of  intense  pleasure  to  him. 
He  writes  : — 

Monday^  Sept.  6th. — Drove  to  Alnwick  to  luncheon  with 
three  children.  The  castle  less  imposing  than  I  expected.  But 
I  never  was  so  startled  as  to  step  through  the  low  Gothic  door, 
turn  upstairs,  and  find  myself  in  an  Italian  lobby  with  Justice 
and  Minerva  in  colossal  marble.  The  whole  thing  is  magnificent. 
I  am  afraid  that  I  can  only  feel  that  it  is  "  magnificent."  The 
gem  of  the  splendid  gallery  is  Bellini's  splendid  picture  of  gods 
and  goddesses  eating  and  sleeping  vulgarly. 

The  Duke'  and  Duchess  were  kindness  itself 

On  September  17th  he  paid  a  visit  with  my  mother  to 

the  Fame  Islands  ;  he  says  : — 

Friday. — In  the  Chapel,  fitted  up  with  spoils  of  Durham, 
stalls,  screens,  gates — we  had  a  short  service  and  I  preached  to 
our  few  people — coastguards — and  our  own  party.  I  told  them 
how  the  wold  of  Northumbria  was  once  so  wide  and  wild  that  the 
men  who  tried  to  convert  and  civilize  them  could  not  get  on  at 
all  without  sometimes  going  away  altogether  for  a  year  or  two 
and  shutting  themselves  up — to  commune  with  their  own  hearts 
and  in  their  chambers  and  to  be  still.  And  bid  them  use  their 
own  loneliness  to  some  such  good  end  while  it  lasted.  The  solitary 
woman  of  the  Fame  Islands  told  us  she  ought  not  to  grumble,  rather 
tearfully,  but  that  it  zvas  very  monotonous  and  Satan  gave  her 
constant  trial  by  making  her  discontented.  I  told  her  Cuthbert 
had  felt  the  same  in  the  same  place;  "Satan,"  he  said,  "often 
threw  stones  at  him  there,"  and  she  was  comforted  a  little  when 
she  reflected  how  much  more  good  he  was  able  to  do  for  knowing 
how  Satan  treated  God's  servants. 

Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  and  the  Crewian  Oration  perpetuates  his  benefactions. 
Within  the  walls  of  Bamborough  Castle,  restored  and  repaired  by  his  Trustees, 
was   a   school   for   the    orphan  daughters  of  fishermen.     See  his  life,  Did. 
Nat.  Biogr.  vol.  Xin.  79,  by  the  present  Bishop  of  London. 
^  The  Duke  of  Northumberland  died  Jan.  1899. 


i886  ALNWICK   CASTLE  121 

On  September  20th  he  writes : — 

Monday. — With  wife  and  Nellie  to  Alnwick  Castle.  Lord 
Percy,  Major  and  Mrs  Dundas,  Duchess  Eleanor,  Stuart  Poole 
and  wife,  Mr  Bates  and  Mrs,  antiquarian  of  precision — Miss  Bagot, 
Alan  Heber  Percy  and  especially  Dr  Bruce. 

They  are  very  earnestly  religious  people — the  Duke  rather  a 
victim  of  dejection  than  depression — but  waking  up  thoroughly  to 
the  kindest  courtesies — a  man  who  seems  as  if  he  weighed  every- 
thing with  the  thought  of  what  was  right. 

One  evening  the  Duke  said,  "Yes — there's  a  good  deal  to  see 
at  Alnwick — a  good  deal  of  history — but  it's  all  murders  you 
know." 

Early  in  October  Dr  W.  H.  Thompson,  Master  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  died.     The  Archbishop  writes  : — 

Wednesday.,  Oct.  6th. — To  the  Master's  funeral  at  Trinity:  very 
simple  with  the  anthems  most  sweetly  sung.  The  Chapel  full  but 
not  more,  because  London  is  empty  and  the  University  scarcely 
met.  Mrs  Thompson  sent  for  me  afterwards  to  the  Lodge.  He 
was  delirious  the  last  two  days  but  not  in  pain.  Seventy-six,  "  the 
last  of  the  heroes,"  as  Westcott  says.  When  I  went  up  on  his 
"side"  just  38  years  ago,  he  awed  me  indeed  as  my  tutor  while  he 
attracted  me.  His  splendid  translation  of  the  Bacchae,  and  his 
caustic  remarks  and  his  grand  kindness,  full  of  reserve  and  of  in- 
terest, were  worthy  of  his  large  tranquil  eye,  large  handsome  olive 
face,  thick  eyebrows  and  obliquely  curling  lips — he  wore  a  black 
velvet  double-breasted  waistcoat  and  a  stock  without  collar.  He  was 
the  ideal  of  a  Don  and  a  Scholar,  with  knowledge  far  beyond  what 
he  ever  displayed.  Not  such  a  subtle  nor  such  an  enthusiastic 
scholar  as  Prince  Lee,  and  without  his  wealth  of  quotation  and 
illustration,  but  he  bridged  Euripides  and  Keats  and  Shelley,  and 
made  Euripides  live  like  them  in  English.  His  Plato  was  a 
dim  mystic  power  which  never  came  truly  to  the  birth.  But  in 
those  days  we  little  knew  what  a  Christian  he  was.  He  never 
revealed  it  to  us.  His  quips  and  flouts  were  so  keen  against 
forms  of  practice  which  he  disliked  both  in  Evangelicals  and 
in  the  new  high  church  school  that  we  none  of  us  knew  what 
faith  was  behind  it.  We  never  knew  for  years.  This  was  the 
pity  of  those  glorious  old  Trinity  days.  While  we  loved  him 
there   was  a  gap.     The  first  thing  that  startled  us  was  seeing 


122  DEATH    OF   W.    H.    THOMPSON  aet.  57 

a  little  volume  of  family  prayers  which  he  had  written.  Then  one 
day  while  I  was  breakfasting  with  him  at  the  Lodge  just  after  he 
was  made  Master,  he  asked  me  about  someone  of  whom  I  said 
"He  is  eaten  up  and  slain  with  criticism."  He  rose  from  the 
table  and  moved  towards  the  door,  saying,  "Ah! — Criticism  is 
a  great  thing — but  it  is  not  everything,  is  it,  Benson?"  and  his  eyes 
were  full  of  tears  I  saw.  Some  of  his  jests  will  live  for  ever.  And 
I  must  write  down  some  of  them  for  those  children.  But  now 
I  must  only  add  that  Mrs  Thompson  told  me  how  he  had  said  to 
her  so  often,  "You  must  be  my  clergyman — my  collects — my 
psalms — let  me  have  my  collects" — and  how  dear  to  him  was 
"O  Saviour  of  the  world,  etc.,"  how  again  and  again  he  said  it.  I 
sate  at  Chapel  at  the  funeral  in  the  place  where  dearest  old  Francis 
Martin  sate  when  first  I  knew  him— next  to  the  Vice-Master.  What 
noble  heads  then  rose  above  the  front  of  the  Stalls  as  we  gazed  on 
them,  knowing  that  there  was  intellectual  greatness,  real  greatness 
living  over  and  with  us.  Whewell — Sedgwick— Thompson — 
Martin — Mathison — Cope — Clark — Munro — -even  Mr  Carus  had 
a  genius  for  goodness.  Then  there  was  Preston  with  his  Arabic, 
and  Walmisley  with  his  music — all  gone.  Westcott  was  just 
a  Bachelor,  Lightfoot  the  year  above  me.  Sir  W.  Harcourt  was 
one  year  senior  and  he  was  at  the  funeral  and  at  the  Lodge 
to-day.     I  believe  he  sincerely  and  deeply  cared  for  the  Master. 

The  next  Master  will  have  hard  times.  Many  questions  and 
agitations  have  been  held  back  out  of  regard  for  him  and  from 
the  sense  that  the  end  would  needs  come  soon.  I  had  written 
strongly  to  Lord  Salisbury  that  he  is  almost  bound  to  appoint 
Montagu  Butler ^ 

The  Archbishop  was  still  tired  and  overworked,  and 
went  for  a  short  tour  in  Holland  and  Belgium  with  his 
daughter  Nellie.  His  notes  are  very  full.  I  select  a 
passage  written  at  Ghent : — 

Ghent. — The  genuine  portions  of  the  Van  Eyck  are  finer  far 
than  I  had  realised,  though  the  Arundel  copy  is  certainly  most 
beautiful.  Ah!  the  "Juventus  sine  Senectute  in  fronte" — with 
what  a  splendid  audacity  the  blanket-wrapt  ugly  Apostles  are 
instantly  followed  by  the  gloriously  robed  pontiffs — not  as  if  this 
were  to  be  apologised  for,  but  just  as  rendering  the  course  of 

^  Then  Dean  of  Gloucester. 


i886  TOUR    IN    BELGIUM  123 

History  quite  simply  and  as  if  History  and  Faith  knew  best— and 
they  wear  their  splendours  as  unconsciously  as  the  Apostles  their 
blankets.  I  cannot  agree  with  Reynolds'  criticism  on  Rubens' 
St  Francis  at  the  Academy.  The  aim  seems  something  most  high 
and  most  difficult  on  the  face,  yet  I  do  think  I  read  it.  The  ex- 
ceeding agony  of  the  wounds  struggles  on  the  face  with  an  ecstatic 
smile,  as  wave-lines  roll  back  from  the  shore  and  cross  the  advancing 
lines  and  yet  continue.  I  seem  to  see  the  contraction  of  the 
actual  muscles  with  pain  and  the  expanding  of  the  smiling  muscles, 
actually,  physically;  but  the  strange  light  which  shines  through  the 
shadow  over  the  left  eye,  and  the  deep  distance  to  which  the  right 
eye  looks,  and  still  is  baffled  in  its  gaze,  and  the  wild  lines  of 
fasting  and  watching  round  the  tiTrojTrioi'',  and  the  very  almost  loss  of 
balance,  as  if  the  emanation  from  the  seraph  above  drove  him 
sideways  from  his  knees,  make  this  upraised  picture  to  my  mind  a 
most  powerful,  appealing,  and  inspiring  figure. 

Here  too  the  monumental  inscriptions  well  worth  the  reading, 
which  tell  of  righteous  vexed  souls  amid  the  iniquity.  The  most 
interesting  and  magnificently  executed  face  and  statue  of  Bishop 
Trieste  who  bought  those  four  mighty  candelabra  of  Edward  the 
Sixth  and  Charles  the  First,  and  whose  inscription  asks  the  Priest 
after  celebrating  Mass  daily  to  sprinkle  the  tomb  with  holy  water 
and  pray — which  he  still  does  :  a  most  unprotestant  and  loving 
and  natural  proceeding  which  I  should  think  ought  certainly  to  be 
put  down.  So  unbusiness-like,  so  useless  !  And  the  other  kneel- 
ing Bishop  "qui  cause  tranquillement  avec  la  Mort,"  and  desires 
in  marble  that  other  folks  will  do  so  daily.  I  should  think  he  was 
glad,  when  he  met  him  by  poison  in  Spain,  that  he  had  known 
him  so  long. 

Here  alas  no  vespers — -"can't  be  sans  frais — and  the  lands  are 
all  gone  and  no  one  wishes  to  pay  now  for  anything — autrefois  il 
y  avait  des  richesses  sans  luxe — aujourd'hui  c'est  luxe  sans 
richesses,"  said  the  tiny  withered  gentle  old  sacristan  verger. 
I  don't  understand  quite  the  extraordinary  plainness  of  these  vast 
churches  as  they  were  built — all  this  decoration  is  of  late  date. 
They  must  have  had  their  views  of  church  extension,  and  when 
the  streets  at  meal-times  were  so  crowded  that  all  conflicting 
business  stopped  to  let  the  workmen  pass,  then  they  must  have 
said,  "We  will  bate  no  jot  of  height,  and  dignity,  and  strength  and 

^  The  part  of  the  face  under  the  eye. 


124  TOURNAI  AET.  57 

adaptiveness  to  service  and  song  and  preachment,  but  simplicity 
shall  reign  over  all  and  for  adornment  we  will  have  mighty  space — 
save  nothing  on  grandeur,  but  save  all  on  luxury." 

And  now,  midnight.  Goodnight  all  the  world.  The  Great 
Bear  hangs  in  deep  blue  between  the  Beffroi  and  the  Tower 
of  S.  Bavon,  and  the  carillons  chime  sweet  farewell  to  the  day. 
Goodnight  to  all  but  God. 

At  Tournai  a  striking  incident  happened  ;  he  writes, 
Oct.  8th  :— 

At  the  early  mass  there  were  i8  canons  in  their  stalls  who  sang 
the  Tierce  together — only  12  are  titular,  or  recognised  by  the 
Government,  the  rest  are  honorary  (to  number  of  28  altogether) 
and  maintain  the  service  without  fee  or  house.  The  behaviour  of 
all  was  most  religious  and  devout,  and  their  going  away  silent  and 
singly,  and  the  celebration  very  pious.  The  faces  rather  im- 
pressive, more  like  lawyers  or  business  men  for  thoughtfulness 
and  sense  of  work  to  be  done — and  some  much  more  than  this. 
But  their  dignified  service  was  followed  by  that  cringing  starving 
Rosary.  Several  interesting  inscriptions  testify  to  the  noble  old 
canons  and  archdeacons  and  bishops  who  gave  lands  and  all  they 
had  for  the  good  of  the  church  and  its  work — now  devoured  by 
the  hungry  State.  In  the  Sacristy  we  saw  several  striking  frag- 
ments of  Art  and  of  History.  Among  them  Thomas  a  Becket's 
chasuble — red  silk,  gloss  gone  but  in  good  condition,  several  times 
lined.  The  orphreys  of  a  beautiful  gold  and  white  lace,  most 
delicately  figured  with  plant  shapes,  dragons,  birds,  the  long 
central  stripe  also  delicately  inwoven  with  soft  black  patterns.  It 
is  not  like  their  ugly  stiff  modern  ones,  but  falls  at  the  sides  nearly 
as  low  as  in  front  and  at  back,  and  had  to  be  lifted  in  great  folds 
by  the  arms  as  a  great  round  surplice  would.  An  odd  thing 
happened.  The  sacristan  was  pleased  evidently  by  all  our  interest, 
and  while  expounding  it  (vestment)  and  the  "martyrdom  while 
saying  the  office"  together,  he  gathered  it  up  saying,  "Vous 
mettrez  la  tete  par  la,"  and  suddenly  put  it  over  my  head,  and 
there  I  stood  dressed  from  head  to  foot  (it  is  very  long  and 
fell  quite  to  my  feet)  in  the  first  chasuble  I  ever  had  on,  and 
being  the  first  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  I  suppose,  who  ever  had 
it  on  since  Thomas  himself.  As  he  did  it  he  said,  "II  etait 
archeveque,    vous    savez,    de    Cantorbery."      We   were    and   are 


i886  WATERLOO 


125 


absolutely  incogniti,  and  it  sounded  (if  ever  omen  was)  like  a 
bidding  to  do  something  or  leave  something  undone. 

On  Oct.  14th  he  visited  the  scene  of  Waterloo.  He 
writes  : — 

Thursday. — One  of  the  grandest  days  of  my  life.  We  had 
studied  our  Battle  of  Waterloo  well.  We  drove  over  early,  went 
up  the  Belgian  Mound  and  made  out  every  point.  Then  after 
lunching  at  the  Inn  and  a  short  inspection  of  the  Museum,  (where, 
as  I  lightly  touched  a  blade,  the  great  old  Brown  Bess  suddenly 
dropped  from  the  wall  and  remained  in  my  hand,  while  a  large 
horsebit  clattered  down  to  my  foot,) — we  set  out  and  walked  to 
La  Haye  Sainte  and  the  sandpit,  sunk  roads,  etc.,  then  to  La  Belle 
Alliance,  and  both  ways  a  little  along  the  French  lines,  then  to 
Hougomont.  The  vividness  of  the  whole  was  almost  painful  as 
hour  by  hour  went  on,  and  the  realisation  of  every  tide  of  the 
battle  grew  more  perfect.  One's  veneration  for  the  genius  and  self- 
control  of  the  Duke  rose  to  boiling  point,  as  well  as  our  at  length 
home-felt  gratitude  to  warriors.  Dreadful  as  it  all  is,  the  devotion 
of  Christians  to  their  religion  has  scarcely  equalled  the  devotion  of 
those  soldiers — death  and  suffering  embraced  with  ardour  for  the 
cause  as  if  its  invitations  had  been  to  ease  and  delight — and  that 
by  the  lowest  of  the  people  as  well  as  by  the  heroes. 

The  smallness  of  the  heights  and  the  nearness  of  the  forces  to 
each  other  were  the  only  matter  of  surprise— all  else,  except  the 
chronology  of  some  of  the  movements,  clear  as  the  day. 

On  the  1 8th,  after  his  return  to  England,  a  meeting  w^as 
held  to  decide  about  founding  the  "  Church  House." 

The  rest  of  the  year  was  spent  quietly  at  Addington. 
He  writes : — 

Dec.  22)rd,  Thursday. — Went  with  Nellie  to  see  the  four  senior 
grand-dames  of  the  village.  Mrs  Coppin,  Palmerine,  and  Adams, 
all  so  nice,  affectionate,  and  soft-mannered ;  certainly  assured 
homes  and  wages  and  kindness  through  generations  (some  of 
them  remember  four  archbishops,  have  been  here  forty  years,  etc.), 
have  a  fine  gentle  effect.  Mrs  Coppin  spoke  several  times  of  "  up 
at  the  house,"  and  corrected  herself — at  last  she  said,  "I  beg 
pardon — but  I  can't  help  it.  We  all  of  us  always  say,  Up  at  the 
house,  as  if  it  all  belonged  to  us." 


126  BURDEN   OF   RESPONSIBILITY  aet.  57 

To  Professor   Westcott. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

Dec.  2nd,  1886. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

I  don't  think  I  am  mistaken  as  to  the  magnitude  and 
increase  of  duty  and  labour  for  the  episcopate,  but  more  and 
more  none  will  enter  (except  Bishop  of  London,  who  is  over- 
whelmed) into  the  great  field  of  the  Church's  work.  Every  one  is 
absorbed  in  his  own  vineyard  and  does  not  look  on  it  as  a  part. 
There  must  be  some  standing  inner  council.  But  this  they  (and 
perhaps  you)  would  think  worse  than  all  evils. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  New  Year  he  thus  writes  on 
the  same  subject  to  Dean  Davidson  : — 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

5  Jan.   1887. 
My  dearest  Dean, 

I  am  very  sensible  of  and  grateful  for  the  affectionate 
and  cheering  letter  which  you  have  written  me  on  the  New  Year. 
And  above  all  the  assurances  of  your  prayers,  and  of  the  prayers 
of  many  others,  ought  to  gladden  me.  It  does  at  any  rate  make 
me  feel  sure  that  one  is  not  left  to  one's  own  weakness  either  in 
Heaven  or  earth.  The  singleness  of  the  burden  and  solitariness 
of  responsibility  are  strangely  characteristic  of  this  work — and  with 
all  thinkings  I  do  not  see  on  what  friendly  shoulders  the  burden 
is  to  be  partly  laid,  or  how  the  responsibility  can  really  be  shared. 
One  after  all  would  be  held  responsible,  and  the  persons  who 
could  give  the  time  do  not  now,  since  the  suppression  of  canonries, 
exist  in  this  country.  To  be  good  counsellors  people  must  be 
thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the  subjects  and  have  time  to  regularly 
meet. 

As  to  the  great  kindness  of  your  assurances  that  things  are 
going  well,  I  can  only  accept  them  in  one  sense.  God's  will  will 
be  wrought  out  one  way  or  another — but  the  absence  of  reading, 
of  meditation  on  first  principles,  of  seeing  daily  something  below 
the  surface,  of  comparing  past  with  present  and  inferring  the  chart 
for  the  future,  the  "aridita,"  the  hand-to-mouth,  are  full  of  a  dark 


i887  DREARINESS  127 

cavernous  sort  of  dread  of  what  may  at  any  moment  be  at  hand. 
I  am  certain  in  my  own  heart  that  I  do  not  desire  influence  at 
all  except  for  its  uses ;  in  itself  it  has  ceased  to  be  impressive  or 
attractive.  But  I  am  rather  surprised  at  what  you  say  of  its 
existence.  The  "Friends  of  the  Church,"  especially  the  natural 
friends,  the  conservative  style  of  politicians,  seem  studiously  or 
carelessly  to  ignore  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  any  representa- 
tives, and  to  be  as  it  were  constructing  a  ^^^^j'Z-Church  legislation 
and  new  sort  of  personnel  for  Church  affairs.  It  is  singular  when 
the  Church  is  apparently  growing — singular,  and  to  one  side  or 
other  perilous.  But  you  dwell  on  higher  considerations  than  all 
these,  and,  in  spite  of  very  low-burning  lights,  they  are  one's  comfort, 
at  least  before  each  day  begins  its  noise. 

Ever  affectionately  and  ever  gratefully  yours, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 
The    Archbishop   was  anxious  and  depressed  and  his 
health  was  not  good.     On  the  i6th  he  notes: — 

Sunday.  A  drear  beginning.  I  am  afraid  it  is  a  general  sense 
of  dreariness  which  has  fought  off  my  making  entries  in  this  year's 
diary.  We  have  had  a  favourite  maid,  a  quiet,  undemonstrative 
religious  girl,  lying  between  life  and  death  since  October — puzzled 
that  she  lives,  puzzled  that  she  gets  no  better.  Our  Nellie  has 
been  ill  and  almost  foodless,  so  to  speak,  for  five  weeks  and  is 
no  better.  The  ground  has  been  covered  with  deep  snow,  the 
sky  with  gloom,  the  air  has  been  a  biting  wind  and  choking  fog 
by  turns,  for  four  weeks  at  least.  It  began  with  a  snow  that  fell 
14  inches  in  six  hours,  succeeding  and  freezing  on  a  heavy  rain 
of  three  hours.  Ice  and  snow  were  glued  on  every  branch  and 
twig,  a  heavy  wind  arose  and  next  morning  Addington  looked  as 
if  shot  and  shell  had  been  raining  on  the  woods  for  hours.  No 
one  remembers  such  desolation.  Oaks  and  elms  have  lost  their 
finest  branches,  the  two  great  ilexes  by  the  dairy  and  the  swan- 
pool  are  one  of  them  cleft  in  three  to  the  roots,  the  other  has 
all  its  lances  splintered  and  most  of  them  snapt,  birches  divided, 
chestnuts  denuded,  all  the  twigs  of  the  beeches  simply  strewn  as 
a  carpet, — a  summer's  work  to  move  the  wreck. 

At  the  end  of  February  the  Archbishop  went  to  Canter- 
bury :  he  inaugurated  the  Lenten  Mission  held  there  by  an 
address  to  Church  workers.  He  spoke  somewhat  sadly 
of  the  outlook,  social  and   political,  and  went  on,  "  The 


128  INTERNATIONAL   ARBITRATION         aet.  57 

doctrine  of  Christ  without  warmth  is  ineffective.  We  may 
teach  the  doctrine  of  Christ  as  we  will — but  if  we  give  it 
no  warmth  it  will  not  mould  character.  Then,  on  the  other 
hand,  warmth  without  doctrine  is  ineffective.  It  is  a  flame 
which  is  easily  blown  out  by  the  world.  Do  resolve  that 
your  work,  whether  for  others  or  yourselves,  shall  be  deep 
work — not  excited  or  dissipated  work.  Pray,  expect,  turn 
faith  into  life,  and  you  will  find  this  a  new  world." 

On  the  question  of  International  Arbitration  in  War 
questions  he  wrote  to  Professor  Westcott : — 

Lambeth. 

10th  March,  1887. 
My  DEAR  Westcott, 

I  need  not  say  that  I  have  thought  (or  brooded)  much 
over  your  last  suggestion.  The  Quaker  recommendations  are 
certainly  touching.  But  they  are  differently  placed  from  us  in 
that  we  have  such  intense  responsibility  for  the  impressions  we 
produce.  If  our  authorities  ask  the  nation  to  pray  for  peace,  the 
apprehension  is  great  that  we  know  there  is  real  risk  of  war. 
The  very  day  I  had  your  letter,  some  one  told  me  he  had  just 
been  at  one  of  the  great  Embassies  in  London,  the  one  most 
concerned,  and  had  seen  one  of  the  principal  secretaries,  a  friend 
of  his,  who  had  said,  "  My  chief  does  not  believe  in  war — not  in 
the  very  least."     That  day  the  papers  were  full  of  threatenings. 

It  is  very  difficult.  It  would  have  been  mischievous  if  any- 
thing had  come  out  on  authority  which  seemed  to  imply  fear. 
But  perhaps  you  mean  something  quite  different  from  this — and 
then  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  indeed  everyone's  duty  in  all  places 
and  at  all  times  to  be  urging  people  to  ensue  peace  in  prayers. 
And  I  think  there  might  be  many  more  devotional  gatherings 
than  there  are  in  which  such  blessings  might  be  sought  and  won. 

The  rush,  crush  and  push  of  work  gives  no  time  literally. 
And  it  is  a  worse  calamity  ovh\v  (fipouieiv  by  far  than  iroXXd  <f>po- 
veovra  /xTjSevos  Kpari^iv '. 

Why  are  most  people  who  are  sent  to  look  to  other  people's 
souls  forced  into  living  as  if  they  had  none  of  their  own  ? 

Your  very  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

^  To  have  no  thoughts — by  much  thought  to  attain  nothing. 


ADDRESSES 


129 


Easter  Tuesday,  April  12,  1887.  Mainly  because  work,  en- 
gagements and  correspondence  have  been  pitiless  it  has  been 
impossible  to  keep  any  record.  My  work  has  never  had  the  least 
regard  to  my  spiritual  interests — if  I  had  dealt  more  wisely  for 
myself  I  should  have  neglected  others.  But  this  must  not  go 
on.     It  really  has  been  a  nodus. 

I  must  now  write  a  few  memorial  notes. 

My  Fridays  have  been  real  oases  ^  Two  or  three  hours  have 
been  kept  for  preparing  for  those.  And  the  Chapel  has  been 
usually  full,  and  once  or  twice  over  full,  of  the  euyeveWarai  koI 

I  have  finished  St  Matthew,  going  deeper  and  deeper  as  they 
could  bear  it.  There  is  certainly  a  very  high-minded  and  true 
purposed  core  within  the  frivolous  and  vexatious  and  vicious 
society  of  London.  It  is  a  leaven — -but  are  the  measures  of 
meal  too  many  for  its  influence — that  is  to  be  seen.  Meantime 
the  holiness  of  many  hearts  is  growing,  and  the  will  to  be  of  use. 
A  few  conversations  and  a  few  letters  are  enough  to  show  me  this. 

The  Rev.  B.  Hunter  of  Aukborough  wrote  to  ask  him 

for  a  subscription  to  the  restoration  of  his  Church,  supposed 

to  have  been  originally  built  as  a  penance  by  the  murderers 

of  Thomas  a  Becket.    The  Archbishop's  chaplain  replied: — 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

Apn'l  21,  1887. 
Dear  Sir, 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  desires  me  to  thank 
you  for  your  letter.  His  Grace  regrets  that  the  innumerable 
claims  upon  him  prevent  him  from  offering  a  contribution  to  the 
Restoration  Fund  of  Aukboro'  Church. 

I  am, 

Yours  faithfully, 

M.  Fowler, 
C/ia/>/am, 
(Added  by  the  Archbishop) 

Private.  The  inclination  to  help  to  expiate  my  predecessor's 
murderers  great — but  must  be  resisted. 

Ed.  C. 

^  This  refers  to  the  derotional  lectures  given  on  Fridays  in  Lent  to  ladies 
in  Lambeth  Chapel,  cf.  vol.  n.  p.  38. 
'  The  most  noble  and  gracious  ladies. 

B.  II.  O 


ISO  THE   PEOPLE'S   PALACE  aet.  57 

On  the  5th  of  May  he  made  a  speech  at  the  Meeting  of 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society :  it  was  a  long  and 
interesting  speech  and  was  well  received.  He  spoke  at 
some  length  of  the  growth  of  language  in  India,  quoting 
the  words  "  Jaj  "  (Judge),  "  Rel  "  (Rail),  "  Kanshans  "  (Con- 
science) and  "  Simpatsizy "  (sympathise)  which  he  said 
were  not  only  new  zuords,  but  represented  new  ideas 
introduced  into  India  by  intercourse  with  British  minds. 

On  May  14th  the  Queen  opened  the  People's  Palace. 
The  Archbishop  wrote  : — 

May  14.  The  Queen  opened  the  People's  Palace.  We  drove 
by  Shaftesbury  Avenue  into  the  route,  and  back  through  Hyde 
Park.  The  whole  way  for  so  many  miles,  the  sides  of  the  road 
(and  so  far  into  the  street  as  to  leave  room  for  carriages  to  pass) 
were  lined  and  crowded  with  tens  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
people — all  well  behaved,  cheering  and  delighted.  The  air  was 
full  of  bunting  and  the  house-fronts  covered  with  loyal  mottoes. 
The  warmth  and  loyalty  grew  more  and  more  conspicuous  as  we 
drove  eastward  along  the  grand  Mile  End  Road. 

The  sight  of  those  vibrating  mighty  ribbons  of  human  faces 
and  forms  haunts  the  eye  still,  and  I  shall  never  forget  it.  It  gave 
one  the  strangest  thoughts  about  cities,  and  races,  and  the  number- 
lessness  of  man,  and  the  riddle  of  his  future.  It  grew  oppressive 
to  have  humanity  so  crushing  into  one's  eyeballs.  But  the  thought 
of  communism,  or  socialism,  or  unbelief  having  hold  on  these 
people  seems  ridiculous  in  sight  of  this  enthusiasm.  It  made  one 
shudder  at  the  thought  of  what  would  be,  if  ever  those  were 
against  us.  That  the  Church  too  was  not  valued  and  even  loved 
could  never  have  entered  the  mind.  The  contrary  was  apparent. 
But  the  responsibility  for  these  masses,  where  does  it  rest  ?  They 
are  not  a  church-going  race — but  less  a  chapel-going  one.  But 
there  is  a  solemn  quiet  sense  of  religion  for  all  that  in  their 
sayings  and  doings. 

On  June   19th  he  writes: — 

Sunday.  I  think  to-day  may  be  a  memorable  day.  The 
Bishop  of  Durham  and  Canon  Westcott  lunched  here,  spent  the 
whole  afternoon  in  the  garden,  had  Evensong  with  me,  we  three 
only,  and  talked  on  till  late.     i.     The  Bishops,  and  particularly 


i887  THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE  131 

the  Archbishop,  are  slack  in  speaking  out  on  the  great  moral 
questions.  They  leave  it  to  the  Pope,  Mr  John  Bright,  or  any 
lay  meeting  to  utter  truth.  The  Liquor  Traffic  (on  which  I 
preached  in  Westminster)  among  native  races  is  being  their  rapid 
destruction,  and  the  Bps  ought  to  say  so.  I  am  to  talk  to  Abp 
of  York  and  see  if  we  can  jointly  appeal.  2.  There  are  other 
great  subjects — Peace — on  which  they  ought  to  speak.  3.  We 
discussed  the  unfortunate  result  in  one  most  important  matter  of 
the  happy  change  in  Episcopal  activity.  The  diocesan  energies 
now  interfere  with  every  Bishops'  meeting,  or  meeting  of  Convo- 
cation, and  leave  the  Church  almost  destitute  of  the  opportunity 
of  counsel.  The  meetings  are  so  short,  so  full  of  matters  to 
discuss  (ludicrously  full),  the  speechifi cation  so  lengthy,  the  un- 
willingness to  commit  ourselves  so  great,  and  the  finalities  so 
hurried,  that  though  some  things  are  carried  through  not  amiss, 
yet  really  grave  great  questions  have  no  hearing,  or  if  they  are 
supposed  to  come  "within  the  sphere  of  practical  politics,"  an 
inadequate  one.  Durham  is  one  of  the  worst  absentees.  Westcott 
endeavoured  to  impress  him.  We  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
"  Cardinalate  "  in  some  form  was  becoming  absolutely  necessary. 
What  we  thought  might  be  done  was  the  appointment  of  four 
or  five  Bishops,  to  give  at  least  an  annual  fortnight  of  conference, 
with  nothing  else  to  do,  on  matters  proposed  by  the  Archbishop 
—or  otherwise  found  necessary.  These  to  be  named  by  the 
Archbishop. 

This  is  essential.  At  the  present  moment  if  there  were  an 
election,  there  would  be  elected  uno  atiimo  the  Bps  of  London 
and  Durham — doubtless — but  after  them  ? 

On  June  21st  the  Jubilee  Service  on  the  completion  of 
the  fiftieth  year  of  the  Queen's  reign  took  place. 

The  Archbishop  had  drawn  up  the  Form  of  Prayer  and 
had,  earlier  in  the  year,  had  some  correspondence  about  it, 
and  the  Queen  wrote: — 

Windsor  Castle. 

March   \<^th^   1887. 

The  Queen  fears  the  Archbishop  will  think  her  remiss  in  not 
sooner  answering  his  kind  letter  with  the  enclosure  of  the  pro- 
posed Thanksgiving  Service  at  Westminster  Abbey  on  the  occasion 
of  her  Jubilee.    She  much  admires  the  Prayers.     She  has  charged 

9—2 


132  THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE  aet.  57 

the  Dean  of  Windsor  to  return  the  proposed  Service  to  the  Arch- 
bishop with  a  few  sUght  suggestions. 

The  Queen  thinks  a  short  portion  of  Scripture  should  be  read 
or  a  Psalm  chanted. 

I  came  up  from  Eton  the  day  before  the  Service  to  act 
as  my  father's  apparitor.  A  special  Police  pass  had  been 
issued  to  him  to  allow  his  carriage  to  pass  through  the 
streets  when  all  other  traffic  was  stopped.  About  an  hour 
before  the  Service  began  he  left  Lambeth.  The  carriage 
was  stopped  at  the  south  end  of  Westminster  Bridge,  and 
not  even  the  production  of  the  Pass  convinced  the  In- 
spector that  we  had  any  right  to  proceed,  as  he  said  he  had 
received  no  orders.  My  father  got  very  angry,  and  at  last 
said  in  a  loud  voice,  "  Well,  all  I  can  say  is  that  unless  you 
allow  me  to  proceed,  there  will  be  no  Service  to-day." 
This  made  the  Inspector  reflect,  and  he  rode  off  to  make 
enquiries,  returning  almost  immediately  with  the  pro- 
foundest  apologies.  The  passage  of  the  carriage  was  the 
signal  for  about  a  hundred  of  the  crowd  to  break  through 
the  cordon  of  police,  seize  the  carriage  behind,  and  run 
with  it,  but  one  by  one  they  were  torn  away,  so  that  we 
arrived  at  the  Abbey  alone.  My  father  was  greeted  by  the 
crowd  with  great  cordiality  and  respect,  all  hats  being 
raised,  and  a  good  deal  of  cheering  being  heard  along  the 
route. 

The  Archbishop  writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Tuesday,  June  21.  Jubilee.  The  ecclesiastical  part  of  this 
noble  celebration  seems  to  be  regarded,  thank  God,  by  all  as 
deeply  devout  and  Church-like.  The  manner  of  the  Queen  was 
most  reverent.  Those  who  saw  her  close,  both  as  she  entered  and 
left,  spoke  of  her  face  as  anxious,  and  her  movement  as  slight  in 
bowing,  but  of  her  whole  look  and  gestures  as  radiant  after  the 
Service. 

Most  noble  was  the  aspect  of  everything.  The  Abbey  was 
not  spoiled  or  rendered  unecclesiastical,  as  it  seemed  likely  to 
be,    by    the    arrangements.      There    were   9,000   people.      The 


i887  DIARY— THE   JUBILEE  133 

unsightly  hoardings  are  all  gone.  They  had  only  been  for  the 
protection  of  the  monuments.  The  people  piling  up  to  the 
West  window  looked  rather  well.  In  the  Eastern  apse  less  so, 
and  I  did  not  like  to  think  of  Edward  the  Confessor's  shrine 
buried  in  darkness  when  it  ought  rather  to  have  been  garlanded. 
The  memorable  sights  I  think  were  these  : — i.  The  enormous 
unending  myriads  of  myriads  of  people  and  their  perfect  good 
behaviour  throughout  the  streets.  The  number  of  little  children, 
and  of  babes  in  their  mothers'  arms  in  the  multitudes,  impressed 
greatly  the  Bishop  of  lowa^  and  Americans  in  general,  as  well  as 
the  foreigners.  The  public  houses  were  open  until  2  a.m.  that 
night  of  the  illuminations,  and  the  cases  of  disorder  before  the 
magistrates  were  fewer  than  the  average  the  next  day.  2.  The 
next  point  (which  I  did  not  see)  was  the  Riding  of  the  Princes 
before  the  Queen's  carriage — 32  sons,  sons-in-law,  grandsons  and 
a  great-grandson.  This  was  the  Queen's  own  idea.  3.  The 
third  point,  which  was  truly  touching,  was  the  Salutation  after  the 
Service  in  the  Abbey,  first  all  the  Princes  kissing  her  hand,  and 
she  stooping  a  little  to  kiss  them  on  the  cheek  or  forehead,  then 
the  Princesses.  They  had  all  sate  close  round  the  throne  within 
a  brass  railing  (which  was  too  high)  and  she  stood  up  to  salute 
them.  I  noticed  the  reverence  with  which  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Germany  kissed  her. 

Days  afterwards  everyone  feels  that  the  socialist  movement 
has  had  a  check.  It  is  impossible  they  can  persuade  themselves 
that  the  multitudes  are  on  their  side.  The  quiet  respectful 
attitude  of  the  people  all  the  days,  and  their  enthusiasm  whenever 
the  Queen  appeared,  are  absolutely  universal,  and  not  a  dog  has 
moved  his  tongue. 

June  23.  We  drove  down  to  Addington,  wife,  Maggie,  I, 
Bishop  of  Iowa  and  his  wife  and  niece.  He  was  surprised  all 
the  way  at  the  miles  of  "pleasant  lanes,"  as  he  said — the  villas, 
and  at  the  "amazing  love  of  the  English  for  flowers."  Addington 
was  the  first  country  house  they  had  seen,  and  he  said  it  was  what 
they  wished  more  than  anything  to  see.  They  were  immensely 
interested  in  its  arrangements  and  in  the  having  tea  on  the  lawn 
under  the  cedar. 

I  had  over  all  the  old  brothers  and  sisters,  38  in  number,  from 
Abp  Whitgift's  hospital  in  Croydon,  and  when  they  had  had  their 

1  Dr  W.  S.  Perry. 


134  DIARY— WINDSOR  aet.  s7 

dinner  and  tea  under  the  beeches  we  walked  up,  halting  and 
merry,  to  the  slope  on  the  south,  and  I  planted  an  English  oak, 
Minnie  and  Maggie  also  helping,  in  commemoration.  The  old 
brothers  and  sisters  were  all  delight,  one  of  them  had  been  carried 
on  his  father's  shoulders  to  George  III.'s  jubilee.  Warden 
Lipscomb  in  a  white  waistcoat  made  a  speech,  advocating  more 
than  one  restriction  which  will  perhaps  be  realized.  It  was  our 
wedding  day  too. 

On  the  25th  he  writes: — 

Last  evening  a  Hussar,  clattering  into  the  Court,  brought 
a  letter  from  the  Queen,  commanding  us  to  dine  to-night  at 
Windsor  and  to  leave  Paddington  by  special  train  at  7.  We  had 
a  garden  party  for  two  thousand  people,  and  the  Queen  of  Hawaii 
to  be  received  at  it.  Though  warned  we  had  to  leave  at  6,  she 
was  so  charmed  with  Ormonde  at  the  Duke  of  Westminster's  that 
she  arrived  just  after  my  wife  and  I  had  left  the  people  at  6. 
Nellie  and  Maggie  had  to  receive  her,  which  we  are  assured  they 
did  with  grace,  and  to  give  her  tea  and  show  her  the  place.  She 
speaks  no  English  or  European  tongue,  was  much  pleased  at  her 
reception,  understood  the  case,  and  could  not  help  a  little  run 
forward  when  she  saw  a  train  pass  near  over  the  arches.  I  was 
drest  in  time  to  go  to  her  for  one  minute.  She  holds  herself 
quite  superior  to  all  royalties  except  our  Queen  !  The  Princess^ 
and  her  husband  talked  English. 

The  banquet  at  Windsor  was  magnificent — no  such  sight,  it  is 
said,  for  20  years  past  at  least.  St  George's  Hall  looked  uncom- 
monly tunnel-like,  but  with  such  a  mass  of  Royal  and  other  guests, 
80  Royalties,  and  130  guests  in  all,  I  think  I  was  told,  with  waggon- 
loads  of  gold  plate  of  endless  massiveness,  and  flowers  and  trees, 
and  the  Indian  escort  in  their  flashing  costumes  and  waving 
swords,  with  minstrels  in  the  gallery,  and  bagpipes  strutting  and 
screaming,  and  Indian  servants  for  the  first  time  in  crimson  robes 
with  V.R.I,  on  the  breast — St  George's  Hall  looked  splendid 
enough.  The  Concert  was  afterwards  in  the  Waterloo  Gallery, 
and  the  Queen  looked  anything  but  tired,  was  pleased,  and 
talked  to  me  very  pleasantly.  I  wore  her  medal  which  she  sent 
me  just  before  dinner  with  a  command  that  I  should  do  so. 
I  rather  suspect  that  it  is  the  first  time  that  an  Abp  has  worn 

^  Princess  Liliuokalani,  sister-in-law  and  successor  of  the  Queen. 


1887  DIARY— MR   GLADSTONE  135 

a  decoration,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  I  ought — but  obedience  is 
the  want  of  our  time. 

On  July  13th  he   notes  down  : — 

To  keep  a  record  of  my  work — business— people  I  see,  on 
business  the  most  urgent — is  simply  an  dSwarovK  P>om  6.30 
when  I  rise  to  12.45  when  I  go  to  bed,  it  seems  utterly  hopeless 
to  extract  any  culture  from  what  surrounds  me,  hopeless  to  seize 
any  moments  except  the  essential  75  minutes'  ride,  and  the  10 
minutes'  sleep — the  10  often  has  to  be  doubled  into  20  to  enable 
my  brain  to  plod  on. 

Is  all  this  God's  will  ?  and  then,  my  work  so  crushes  also  my 
industrious  secretaries.  I  shall  be  making  them  out  of  all  image 
of  Priests  if  they  have  nothing  but  my  business  to  express  and 
consult  on  all  day  long,  and  much  of  the  night. 

And,  as  Davidson  says,  the  popular  idea  of  an  Archbishop  is 
that  his  chief  employment  is  to  draw  his  salary. 

Drove  with  wife  to  DoUis  Hill  to  have  tea  with  the  Gladstones, 
and  strawberries  under  the  trees.  He  was  most  delightful.  His 
old  strong  face  and  brilliant  eyes,  though  the  arcus  setiilis  is  round 
the  pupils,  positively  flashed  as  he  discussed  "  Dignity  "  first,  and 
then  the  Americans.  He  thought  it  strange  that  no  Chronicle 
and  no  novelist  explained  or  described  the  cause  or  the  mode  of 
the  marvellous  transition  in  so  short  a  space  from  New  England 
Puritanism  to  the  modern  American  character  and  society.  He 
pointed  out  too  the  remarkable  features  of  the  fact  that  while  they 
had  suddenly  developed  the  hugest  fortunes  of  the  world,  they 
had  no  inclination  whatever  apparently  to  leave  it  to  inheritance 
to  determine  how  they  should  be  used.  What  then  would  be  the 
common  use  made  of  these  fortunes  ? 

He  promised  to  support  as  far  as  he  possibly  could  the 
Tithe  Rent  Charge  and  the  Church  Patronage  Bills.  I  gave 
him  a  sketch  of  each. 

Nellie  tells  me  that  the  Scripture  woman,  who  knows  every 
house  in  Lambeth,  tells  her  that  the  mass  of  the  people  are 
intensely  radical — and  never  so  much  so  as  in  the  last  eighteen 
months.  The  Queen  and  Monarchy  are  constantly  discussed  and 
disparaged — "  would  undertake  to  do  all  the  Queen  does  for  ^500 
a  year  " — but  so  ignorantly  as  yet  to  be  floored  by  the  rejoinder 
"Then  how  would  you  keep  up  the  establishment?"     Again,  a 

^   Impossibility. 


136  HIS   BIRTHDAY  aet.  58 

man  expresses  great  satisfaction  at  Doulton  being  made  "Sir 
Henry" — "it  is  a  great  compliment  to  Lambeth,"  but  has  no 
answer  to  "  Well,  but  you  want  to  do  away  with  the  Monarchy, 
and  Sir,  and   My  Lord,   and  all  that  stuff." 

Another  is  sick  of  our  arrangement  of  society  but  wouldn't 
like  America.  All  these  inconsistencies  will  soon  disappear 
however.  Conservatism  in  power  seems  to  alienate,  and  Glad- 
stone's incessant  addresses  leaven  the  people  with  the  thought  of 
great  change  impending. 

On  July  14th,  he  says  : — 

My  birthday.  Angelus  qui  eruit  me  a  cunctis  malis,  Deus 
qui  pavit  me  a  juventute  mea  usque  ad  banc  horam. 

I  think  the  thing  I  marvel  at  most  is  the  thinness  of  the 
partition  by  which  He  and  He  only  keeps  me  from  falling  under 
so  many  ghostly  temptations,  and  propensities  so  terrible.  The 
falls  are  sad  enough  and  bad  enough,  and  the  character  they 
reveal  to  me  painful  indeed.  But  the  grace  which  keeps  me  from 
falling  one  inch  further,  irrecoverably,  and  is  not  worn  out  by  my 
-Trapofucr/Aot"  in  this  wilderness,  is  simply  more  visibly  alive  and 
active  in  my  most  certain  experiences,  more  prompt,  more  steady, 
than  I  have  any  experience  of  among  material  things  and  persons. 
Everything  material  is  simply  feeble ;  and  everything  personal  is 
shadowy  as  compared  with  this  personality  under  whose  shadow  I 
am  allowed  to  dwell. 

And  all  this  is  the  more  extraordinary  because  of  the  hurry, 
hotness,  dryness,  aridity  of  the  life  I  am  obliged  to  live  in  London, 
if  correspondence,  interviews,  letters  are  to  be  kept  down  and 
dealt  with  at  all.  The  want  of  time  to  read  and  think,  the  short- 
ness and  distractions  of  prayer,  seem  to  threaten  one's  very 
existence  as  a  conscious  child  of  a  living  God.  And  yet  He  is  on 
my  right  hand,  and  I  know  it. 

May  I  have  more  light  of  His  countenance  as  years  go  on. 
Yet  this  is  not  what  the  threatening  signs  and  every  surging 
business  promise  me. 

In  July  he  went  on  a  visit  to  Marlborough  where  my 
brother  Fred  was  at  school ;  he  writes  : — 

July  \']th.  Preached  in  Marlboro'  Chapel.  We  had  at  7.30 
a  bit  of  the  Communion  Service,  at  11  a  bit  of  the   Morning 

^  Provocations,  Ps.  xcv.  8. 


i887  VANITY   FAIR  137 

Prayer  and  a  bit  of  the  Litany.  German  Bitte !  The  reverent 
behaviour  of  the  boys  is  something  different  from  what  I  recollect 
there,  though  it  was  never  bad  at  all  in  my  sight. 

Afternoon  wife  and  Maggie  and  I  walked  with  Fred  in 
Savernake — marvellous  heat.  He  read  us  some  of  Geo.  Herbert 
with  much  appreciation,  so  that  this  is  the  3rd  generation  of  us 
that  have  delighted  in  him.  Fred  is  a  very  manful  and  sweet 
boy.  He  is  head  of  all  athletics  here  and  has  just  got  the  English 
poem.     Pollock  ^  says  he  should  take  a  first  at  Cambridge. 

On   the  30th  of  July  an    admirable    caricature   of  the 

Archbishop  appeared  in    Vanity  Fair,  which  amused  him 

very  much.  "Jehu  Junior"  wrote: — "The  Archbishop  is  a 

strong  man,  yet  safe  :  an  excellent  administrator,  discreet, 

bold,  and  original,  and  so  little  afraid  of  responsibility  that, 

if  necessary,  he  would  undertake  to  manage  all  the  other 

great  affairs  of  state  as  well  as  those  of  his  Archbishopric. 

Yet  he  is  humble  and  reserved  as  becomes  his  office,  a  great 

worker,   though  not  rapid,   a  man   of  simple  life,  and  the 

most  amiable  of  great  dignitaries  of  state." 

Commenting  on  this  my  father  wrote  on  the  following 
day : — 

Sunday,  Jrdy  31.  V.  F.  takes  on  itself  to  publish  that  I  am  "a 
great  worker  though  not  rapid."  I  wonder  if  that  is  becoming  true. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  very  number  of  things  done  in  the  hours 
and  the  immense  quantity  of  letters  and  papers  to  be  dealt  with, 
could  scarcely  be  with  less  than  the  old  rapidity. 

To-day  Dante,  Greek  Testament,  Holy  Communion  in  the 
Chapel  here  at  8.30,  Westminster  Abbey  Morning  Service,  talk 
with  Hugh,  explained  outline  of  Lake  country  to  him  with  map. 
Whitehall  Chapel  Afternoon  Service,  corrected  proofs  of  Cyprian, 
read  with  Maggie,  Westcott  on  "the  Race  "(social  questions^)  and 
discussed  it  and  kindred  things  with  her  at  some  length.  Between 
Westminster  Abbey  and  luncheon  translated  and  wrote  out  for 
publication  the  Epistle  of  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  delighting 
in  Jerusalem  Bishop  and  expressing  the  warmest  desire  for  unity. 
What  practical  reality  is  there,   I  wonder,   covered  under  these 

^  Then  Assistant-master  at  Marlborough,  now  Headmaster  of  Wellington 
College.  '^  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity. 


138  SONNET   TO    ST   PAUL  aet.  58 

Christian  compliments  and  the  romantic  idea  ?  "  The  two 
Churches,"  "The  sister  Church,"  "The  Exarch,"  "The  newly 
Consecrated  Brother,"  all  this  is  most  admirable,  but  they  decline 
our  Baptism  because  it  is  not  always  by  immersion,  and  what  are 
we  to  make  of  that  ?  Read  African  stories  to  children  between 
supper  and  Compline — strangely  wild,  uncouth,  and  in  their 
nature  relying  on  art  magic,  as  the  key  to  power — or  else  some 
weird  alliance  with  lions  or  locusts  or  monkeys,  as  much  the  same 
as  ourselves  only  with  disadvantageous  forms.  At  10.15  I  thought 
I  would  try  whether  speed  of  work  had  really  deserted  me,  and  I 
gave  its  complete  form  to  a  sonnet  to  Saint  Paul,  the  thought  of 
which  had  been  with  me  for  a  day  or  two.  It  is  truly  ridiculous 
to  think  this  any  test  of  power,  or  poetry,  or  devotion — these  are 
as  God  wills,  and  as  I  can  apprehend  Him  or  be  apprehended  of 
Him.  But  He  also  "  apprehends  us  "  in  the  article  of  rapidity  too 
as  much  as  in  other  things — and  this  cunning  is  not  gone  yet,  for 
at  11.45  I  had  finished  it.  In  such  cases  it  is  reaWy  a.  snare — 
nevertheless,  snare  or  not,  it  is  not  gone. 

I  do  not  find  myself  less  rapid  than  in  the  old  days  when  it 
stood  me  in  stead  so  often.  But  I  do  find  a  very  increasing  un- 
willingness to  come  to  the  point — a  decided  preference  for  doing 
any  other  duty  than  the  one  which  it  would  be  prudent  to  take  in 
hand  at  any  given  moment.  But  this  has  been  my  failing  from  a 
child,  and  it  has  this  advantage  sometimes,  that  the  thing  gets 
done,  which  would  otherwise  not  have  been  done  at  all,  first  of  all 
— and  after  that  comes  in  the  other  absolutely  necessary  thing  at 
high  pressure  and  with  all  the  enjoyment  of  rapid  and  accurate 
work  with  all  one's  senses  and  volitions  tremendously  alert. 

I  doubt  whether  a  sonnet  was  ever  composed  under 
such  singular  circumstances :  late  at  night,  by  an  Arch- 
bishop fearing  the  decay  of  his  literary  faculty.  I  subjoin 
the  result : 

^' A//  things  are  yours — whether  Paul,'"  &"€. 

Canst  thou  be  mine  ?     Thou,  whose  one  conscience 
Shamed  the  wise  world  till  in  its  place  it  shined 
The  wisdom  and  the  conscience  of  mankind ; 
No  human  day  it  recked,  void  of  offence 
'Fore  man  or  God,  yet  in  a  measureless  sense 
Of  righteousness  hid  self  the  Cross  behind  : 


i887  EASEDALE  139 

Raised  realms  to  churches,  heard  the  ceaseless  wind 

Of  Nature's  sobbing  die  for  joy  intense, 

And  yearned  alive  with  the  dear  dead  to  rise. 
Thy  vast  sweet  soul  which  wooed  not  poverty 
More  than  the  world's  wealth  if  God  willed  it  thee, 

Nor  long'd  for  unvoic'd  words  of  Paradise 
More  than  Christ's  prison — it  were  agony 
In  my  strait  house  for  thee  to  dwell  with  me. 

Ed.  C. 

11.45  P-n^-  31  /^^.   1887. 

This  summer  my  father  and  mother  took  a  house  in 
the  Lakes,  a  country  of  w^hich  we  w^ere  very  fond.  It  was 
Easedale  House,  in  Easedale  above  Grasmere,  belonging 
to  Mr  Fletcher,  the  Vicar  of  Grasmere,  who  accompanied 
my  father  on  several  expeditions  and  told  him  many 
interesting  stories.  The  house  is  almost  the  last  in  the 
valley,  and  was  very  quiet  and  beautiful. 

Thursday^  Aug.  11.  A  quiet  drive  from  Addington  to  Euston 
Square.  A  quiet  journey  without  change  thence  to  Windermere, 
a  bad  headache  all  day,  but  an  hour  of  anxiety  as  usual  over 
the  newspapers,  which  should  make  one  believe  that  every 
institution  is  on  the  eve  of  change — and  a  canto  of  Dante — and 
a  spell  at  "Through  one  Administration,"  with  thankfulness  that 
at  least  in  England  we  are  not  yet  on  that  level  in  politics  which 
in  America  seems  to  be  regarded  as  a  right  of  the  people's, 
"  Being  a  democracy  they  may  properly  take  a  low  tone." 

The  drive  to  Grasmere  was  unaltered  of  course  in  its  larger 
features.  But  the  tone  of  sacredness,  the  stillness,  the  retired 
look  of  sanctuary  about  Rydal,  the  purity  and  unprofanedness 
about  Grasmere,  the  sense  of  reverence  about  Wordsworth  lately 
dead,  and  still  dwelling  among  the  perfections  of  the  place — which 
brooded  over  it  36  years  ago,  is  gone.  Villas  endless,  all  nicely 
kept,  coaches  countless  and  all  thronged,  throngs  afoot,  dust  over 
every  wall  and  tree  and  leaf,  thick  dust  of  infinite  wheels  in  the 
road — the  look  of  "stare  and  flash  by"  over  everything — spirits 
sank,  the  whole  way  along.  Suddenly  we  were  in  Easedale  and 
the  peace  and  stillness  and  happy  neglectedness,  so  to  speak, 
over  all.  To  Mr  Fletcher's  house  for  4  weeks  taken— very  sweet 
and  cool — Easedale  House. 


I40  LODORE  AET.  58 

The  following  extract  (Aug.  23)  will  show  how  great 
his  activity  was  : — 

Tuesday.  All  of  us  drove  to  Keswick — lunched  on  the  lake. 
Arthur  and  Fred  walked  off  for  Wastdale — Little,  Hugh  and  I 
up  to  Watendlath  and  over  Armbeth  Downs  to  Thirlmere,  where 
the  carriage  with  wife  and  girls  met  us  and  brought  us  back  under 
a  red  sickle  moon  appearing  at  intervals  above  the  fells  on  its  way 
to  setting,  before  the  red  glow  had  wholly  died  off  the  heights. 

I  got  before  the  others  among  the  Lodore  woods,  and  went 
up  a  very  steep  place  among  rocks  and  roots.  When  the  others 
reached  it  they  felt  certain  that  I  could  not  have  gone  that 
way  and  turned  back.  I  thridded  the  woods  very  high  up  and 
at  last  came  out  by  a  wall  which  had  a  sloping  bank  on  the 
other  side,  and  then  a  sudden  fall  which  was  clothed  by  bracken. 
Lighted  on  the  slope  all  right,  but  slid  onwards  owing  to  its 
being  so  dry,  and  in  a  moment  fell  over  the  slope  and  rolled 
and  was  brought  up  by  a  sharp  rock  in  my  left  hip.  Rather 
hurt,  and  picked  myself  up  thankful  to  find  that  I  had  not 
broken  anything,  limped  along  the  top  of  the  fall  shouting  to 
them,  could  get  no  answer,  I  suppose  from  the  sound  of  the 
water,  and  then  set  off  to  walk  to  Watendlath,  leaving  a  scrap 
of  paper  in  a  gate  to  say  I  had  gone  on.  They  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  I  was  still  in  the  wood  and  that  they  must  go 
back  for  me  just  when  they  saw  this.  I  had  three-quarters  of 
an  hour  or  more  at  Watendlath  before  they  arrived — curious 
conversation  with  an  old  man,  "  Ay  !  ay  !  well !  well !  "  on  a  rock, 
waiting.  He  thought  Manchester  had  given  double  price  for 
all  the  land  it  had  bought  for  the  water  works,  "one  family, 
Jackson,  staatesman,  jQ'jo,ooo.  Na,  ye  can't  see  top  o'  t'  hill. 
It's  aboot  half  way  to  Thirlmere  going  oop,  and  about  half  way  of 
it  doon  back.  Go  straight,  lay  a  line  over  top  o'  fell  straight— 
and  go  by  that — straight."  We  then  walked  happily  over  the 
tussocky  and  heathery  moors,  not  easy  walking,  down  to  the 
King's  Head,  and  so  home,  children  all  delightful,  so  fresh  and 
interesting,  and  their  sketches  so  very  good. 

On  the  25th  he  says: — 

Bishop  of  London  and  Mrs  Temple  to  luncheon — we  all 
walked  up  to  Easedale  Tarn  and  spent  the  afternoon  in  sunshine 
on  the  mounds  and  knolls  and  lake  under  the  crags,  in  sight  of 
Helvellyn — and  tea'd  in  the  hut. 


1887  SOCIAL   STANDING   OF   BISHOPS  141 

We  talked  necessarily  of  many  things.  We  fear  the  diminution 
of  the  incomes  of  the  Bishops.  Our  own  are  scarcely  likely  to 
suffer.  But  it  means  in  the  long  run,  "  To  what  class  in  society 
shall  the  Bishops  belong  ?  " — and  the  question  is,  can  self-denying 
hard-working  men  affect  most  classes  by  being  in  the  upper  or 
in  the  lower  classes  themselves  ?  and  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the 
answer.  Men  moving  in  the  higher  class  affect  that  class,  and 
the  classes  below  with  an  immense  leverage.  My  experience  of 
society  teaches  me  that  from  a  lower  standing,  men  (except  men 
of  real  genius)  have  scarcely  any  effect  upwards. 

He  was  giving  much  thought  to  the  subject  which  had 
lately  been  mooted  in  the  Guardian  and  writes  to  the 
Dean  of  Windsor  on  the  27th  in  the  same  strain, 
adding : — 

The  higher  set  will  have  nothing  to  say  to  the  upper  middle  if 
they  can  help  it,  and  the  clergy  might  as  well  be  at  once  withdrawn 
from  any  possibility  of  affecting  upper  middle  and  upper,  as  has 
been  so  thoroughly  done  in  Germany,  where  a  small  country 
squire  never  asks  the  Pfarrer  to  dine.  This  is  what  will  be  set  in 
motion  by  reducing  Bishops,  and  it  will  never  stop  till  that  is 
done.     Tithes  &c.  all  helping. 

The  question  of  the  selling  of  ecclesiastical  residences 
was  also  strongly  in  his  mind  ;   he  says  : — 

Sep.  9.  There  is  a  new  campaign  opened  now  upon  the 
Bishops.  The  Guardian  and  certain  Churchmen  will  be  content 
with  nothing  but  dividing  once  more  the  dioceses  of  Rochester 
and  Winchester.  I  am  to  have  the  Archdeaconry  of  Canterbury 
alone  for  my  diocese,  because  I  have  too  much  to  do,  and 
Addington  is  to  be  sold,  because  I  have  two  good  houses  to  live, 
and  receive,  and  work  in.  I  am  to  be  provided  out  of  the 
proceeds,  says  Lord  Midleton,  with  "a  less  expensive  and  more 
convenient  residence  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,"  and  of  course 
(though  that  is  not  yet  said)  am  to  be  largely  mulcted.  The 
Bishop  of  Winchester  has  written  rather  a  weak  letter  neither 
holding  to  Farnham  nor  letting  it  go.  Lord  Midleton,  as  a  Surrey 
man,  says  the  other  Palaces  may  be  sold,  but  not  Farnham,  as 
"  historic,"  just  as  Bishop  of  Durham  says  all  others  may  but  not 
Auckland.    If  my  diocese  was  halved  I  should  still  want  a  suffragan, 


142  RIGHTS   OF   CLERGY  aet.  58 

and  with  a  suffragan  I  can  work  it  very  well  as  it  is.  And  if 
Addington  is  sold  for  any  such  reason,  we  shall  soon  see  if  Lord 
Midleton  will  not  have  before  many  years  to  provide  himself  with 
a  less  expensive  and  more  convenient  residence  than  Peper  Harrow, 
for  these  headstrong  men  do  not  know  that  they  are  only  guiding  on 
the  democracy  to  the  houses  and  lands  and  revenues  of  their  own 
order.  And  when  they  have  (to  assure  the  democracy  that  their 
own  Conservatism  is  not  narrow)  sacrificed  glebe,  tithe  and  rank 
and  all  that  it  befits  a  rich  and  civilised  land  to  provide  for  the 
clergy — who  lay  all  out  with  a  very  different  conception  from  their 
own  of  what  the  ends  and  duties  of  such  property  are — then  they 
will  be  surprised  to  find  that  there  is  no  class-right  left  defensible 
in  England.  The  mass,  if  it  takes  away  that  property  to  the  use 
of  which  responsibility  is  attached,  will  not  leave  in  existence 
property  to  which  no  responsibility  belongs.  The  clergy,  in 
defending  their  station,  will  probably  make  no  appeals  to  the 
selfishness  of  the  landowner  or  to  his  fears — they  will  not  think 
that  right,  very  possibly,  and  the  aristocracy  will  go  on  digging 
their  own  graves  singing  like  Hamlet's  sexton. 

Sep.  wth.  Henry  Sidgwick,  who  from  his  boyhood  has  been 
a  reader  of  all  novels,  and  who  possesses  the  most  remarkable 
faculty  of  remembering  the  plots  of  all,  told  me  a  little  while  ago 
only,  that  the  harder  he  worked  the  more  fiction  he  required.  He 
now  says,  "  he  is  distinctly  sorry  that  he  has  given  novels  so  much 
attention  and  time — it  is  a  new  feeUng  with  him,  but  he  entirely 
regrets  that  he  has  been  such  a  reader  of  novels  in  hours  which  he 
might  have  given  to  botany  or  geology  or  other  occupation."  He 
also  says  that  in  investigating  spiritualism,  he  has  never  found  one 
medium  of  the  great  number  whom  he  has  professionally  paid 
whom  he  has  the  least  reason  to  believe  genuine. 

On  his  way  home  he  and  my  mother  went  to  stay 
with  the  late  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  Dr  Harvey  Goodwin,  and 
then  with  the  late  Earl  of  Harewood^  The  Archbishop 
writes  : — 

Sep.  15.  We  came  by  the  "new"  line  over  the  noble  valley 
of  Dent  and  past  Skipton.  Dear  Skipton  with  its  sweet  and  holy 
memories  of  five  years  old,  and  fifteen,  and  eighteen  !  Could  now 
just  see  the  castle  where  I  spent  such  magic  hours  with  my  old 

1  Died  1892. 


i887  HAREWOOD— BRAMHAM  143 

aunt,  over  the  abominable  mills  and  railway  sheds,  and  Christ 
Church,  the  very  image  of  devotion,  to  which  Christopher  Sidgwick 
dedicated  his  all,  grimy.  But  red  Rumblesmoor  was  unchanged. 
Tiffy  ^  and  I  cried  at  the  turning  of  the  first  sod  for  a  railway  in 
the  fields  by  the  hill,  and  the  fields  are  now  extinct  under  railway 
buildings.  Rylstone  Fell  and  Embsay  Crag  and  Eastby  Fell, 
that  sweet  and  graceful  outlined  trio  still  embrace  the  valley  side 
towards  Bolton.  We  again  just  glimpsed  Riddlesden  which  used 
to  stand  out  so  old-world-like  against  the  hillside,  and  where  one 
used  to  drive,  even  when  I  was  a  big  stripling,  40  miles  to  Leeds 
through  the  sweet  villages  of  Keighley  and  Bingley.  The  whole 
valley  from  end  to  end  is  spoiled,  enslaved,  dejected.  It  was  the 
very  home  and  spring  of  fresh  air  and  water,  and  now  it  is  a  sewer 
of  smoke,  with  a  mantling  ditch.  What  is  this  strange  law  by 
which  nature's  gifts  in  the  process  of  their  conversion  to  man's 
uses  defile  and  degrade  the  places  of  their  transition  ?  Is  it  a 
kind  of  death  through  which  things  have  to  pass  to  their  resurrec- 
tion, or  is  it  finally  a  death — and  are  the  products  for  luxury  only 
ghosts  ?     I  declare  I  do  not  know. 

Came  on  driving  from  Leeds  seven  miles  upward  to  Harewood 
House.  The  front  being  familiar  to  me  in  my  big  storehouse  of 
pictures,  but  I  never  was  in  the  house.     Much  that  is  fine. 

On  the  1 6th  he  visited  Mr  Lane- Fox  at  Bramham, 
which  had  a  special  interest  for  him  as  having  been  laid 
out  by  Robert  Benson,  Lord  Bingley.     He  writes : — 

Sep.  16.  Lord  H.  sent  Minnie,  Priscilla^,  and  me  to  Bramham. 
It  was  most  strange  to  me  at  this  age  to  walk  about  the  place  of 
which  I  used  to  dream  such  strange  dreams  as  a  boy  of  14.  The 
gardens  are  much  beyond  what  I  have  ever  seen.  The  high, 
perfectly  smooth  beech  hedges  14  or  15  feet  high — like  walls,  and 
the  beautiful  beeches  overhanging  them  in  arches  at  the  ends  are 
really  exquisite.  They  almost  make  you  see  the  Queen  Anne  and 
Georgian  figures  walking  mincingly  up  and  down.  There  is  a 
strange  chapel  in  which  service  was  still  held  not  so  long  ago,  with 
the  statue  of  Robert  Benson  and  his  daughter  Harriet's  monument 
who  married  the  first  Lane  Fox.     The  house  is  too  ghastly  and 

^  Matilda  Sidgwick,  now  Mrs  Drury,   his  cousin. 

^  Priscilla  Wordsworth,  daughter  of  Bishop  Wordsworth  of  Lincoln,  and 
wife  of  Dr  Percy  Steedman,  formerly  of  tiarewood,  now  of  Oxford. 


144 


TERLING  AET.  58 


dreadful  a  ruin,  it  was  badly  built  and  the  fire  utterly  destroyed  all 
but  the  outside  walls,  two  fantastic  pillars  in  front  of  the  court-yard 
are  surmounted  by  the  familiar  bears  with  the  trefoils  and  bendlets 
on  the  shields  they  lean  on.  These  are  spirited  beasts  and  all 
shows  that  Robert  B.  was  a  man  of  taste  as  well  as  wealth — and 
the  world  seems  rather  inclining  back  to  that  particular  school  of 
taste. 

I  told  Mr  Fox  the  story  my  grandmother  told  me  of  Robert 
Benson's  investments  in  the  South  Sea  Scheme,  and  his  selling 
out  before  Sir  John  Blount,  having  bribed  his  valet  to  let  him 
know  when  Sir  John  was  on  the  point  of  doing  so,  and  he  was 
interested  and  amused,  having  never  heard  it.  He  is  a  very 
fine,  very  tall  and  handsome  man,  with  reddish  skin,  white  hair, 
and  whiskers,  at  over  75  years  old — very  ready  and  very  cordial 
and  frank.  Has  fitted  up  a  small  house  in  the  village  and  makes 
himself  and  his  friends  very  comfortable  there\ 

At  the  end  of  September  my  father  and  mother  went 
to  stay  with  Lord  and  Lady  Rayleigh  at  Terling  Place 
in  Essex.     He  writes  : — 

Sep.  24.  Terling.  On  Friday  we  had  an  interesting  hour  or 
so  in  the  Laboratory — not  to  compare  though  with  my  father's 
laboratory  45  years  ago.  Lord  Rayleigh  is  experimenting  on  the 
weighing  of  hydrogen.  And  his  long  series  of  tubes,  series  after 
series,  with  his  quicksilver  "valves,"  modes  of  exhausting  air  from 
receivers,  and  of  charging  the  same  receivers  with  hydrogen,  to  be 
weighed  before  and  after,  were  ingenious  and  I  hope  on  the  eve 
of  being  successful.  He  has  a  very  fine  full  brow,  fine  nose, 
quiet  penetrating  watchful  eyes,  thin  hair,  stooped  head,  and  that 
beautiful,  still,  patient  yet  expectant  manner  which  belong  to  the 
really  self-renouncing  and  scientific  chemist.  My  father  kept 
recurring  to  me  all  the  time. 

He  showed  us  also  the  most  pretty  experiments  of  a  sensitive 
flame — not  only  violently  agitated  by  a  sibilant,  and  dancing  to 
the  jingle  of  my  keys,  but  perfecdy  sensitive  to  a  machine-made 
note,  the  highest  which  can  be  produced,  finer  and  more  delicate 
than  the  shriek  of  a  bat. 

Gerry  Liddell  here  too  singing  marvellously  with  the  most 

^  This  typical  country  gentleman  of  the  old  school  died  at  the  age  of  80  in 
Nov.  i8q6. 


i887      WOLVERHAMPTON   CHURCH   CONGRESS       145 

wonderful  imitations  of  persons  and  things,  and  producing  with 
her  lips  and  teeth  undistinguishable  imitations  of  a  violin — quite 
undistinguishable. 

The  second  boy  has  the  most  beautiful  yet  anxious  look — full 
of  intelligence  and  full  of  desire. 

On  the  3rd  of  October  he  went  to  Wolverhampton  for 
the  Church  Congress. 

He  had  a  magnificent  reception  ;  he  writes  in  Diary  : — 

October  3.  Wolverhampton.  To  the  Church  Congress  at 
Wolverhampton  (Mayor  met  at  station).  The  streets  were  filled 
with  an  enormous  crowd,  mostly  working  people.  They  were 
sympathetic  and  more  than  respectfully  still.  There  were  the 
characteristic  little  children  and  babes  in  arms  which  marked  the 
crowds  at  the  Jubilee.  The  Chief  Constable  pointed  out  to  me 
how  the  police  had  nothing  to  do — so  great  a  growth  he  said  in 
self-respect — even  to  keep  the  lines  for  the  procession.  In  these 
ways  England  is  gaining,  and  in  50  years  more  either  the  crowd 
will  be  all  with  us,  or  we  shall  have  ceased  to  be  able  to  move 
thus  in  public  at  all.  The  procession  with  the  banners,  the 
municipal  dignities,  staff,  crozier,  etc.,  and  the  great  body  of 
Clergy  with  singers  and  instruments  were  really  symbolic.  Most 
impressive  Church — Bishop  of  Durham's  sermon  not  short  of 
grand,  but  there  was  something  of  prescribing  to  us,  in  our  foreign 
relation  as  a  Church,  things  which  have  been  already  begun  and 
waked.  But  both  in  language  and  tone,  in  courage  and  hope,  it 
was  truly  fine  and  inspiring. 

The  Dissenters  presented  an  address  at  the  Town  Hall.  It 
was  framed  in  a  tone  of  equality,  and,  as  regards  spiritual  things, 
of  patronage  of  the  Church's  work.  I  thought  this  showed  more 
uneasiness  at  their  present  position  than  I  have  known  them  to 
exhibit  before.  But  the  tale  of  every  sect  shows  that  they  have 
reason  for  uneasiness  now.  The  Bishop  of  Lichfield  replied 
admirably — shrewdly  and  with  tact. 

This  morning  (Tuesday)  his  address  was  beyond  praise.  It 
dealt  boldly  with  all  the  really  burning  questions,  avoiding  those 
which  are  virtually  "burnt  out,"  as  he  says,  or  else  they  are 
"  crackling  rather  than  burning."  He  amused  them  by  saying 
that  a  sceptic  was  not  now  regarded  by  us  as  a  criminal  but  as  an 
invalid.     He  read  one  of  Julian's  letters — on  the  Confiscation  of 

B.  II.  10 


146  SOCIALISM  aet.  58 

Christian  Church's  goods,  as  a  most  happy  parallel  to  the  usual 
language  of  the  Liberation  Society.  It  was  perhaps  rather  a  pity 
that  he  observed  that  we  "might  want  deliverance  from  parlia- 
mentary, as  we  had  obtained  it  from  papal,  governance."  It 
might  be  really  misunderstood ;  but  he  quite  carried  people  away 
when  he  said  that — at  the  bottom  of  the  troubles  of  our  day  lay 
the  fact  that  Ephraim  "envied^'  Judah,  and  he  feared  that  Judah 
sometimes  "vexed"  Ephraim. 

There  was  an  extraordinary  body  of  people  in  the  Drill  Hall — 
near  3000.  Wife  writes  that  the  Iwies  contracts  what  I  expanded 
and  expands  what  I  contracted — had  to  say  a  few  words  again 
to-day.  The  Congress  rose  to  its  feet  when  I  came  forward — may 
future  Archbishops  be  worthy  of  an  office  still  so  regarded,  and 
may  the  present  one  not  lose  them  the  regard  meantime. 

Came  on  to  Westcott's,  meeting  Fred  at  Cambridge,  to  see  a 
second  son  into  his  rooms  and  his  College — 39  years,  I  think,  as 
near  as  possible  to  the  day  since  I  came  in  such  awe  and  such 
doubt  to  begin  the  same  life.  The  secularised  Colleges  are  not 
to  me  even  in  aspect  the  same  sacred  homes  that  they  were. 
Their  increased  showiness  seems  to  remove  some  out  of  their 
claim  to  veneration.  The  clipping  of  the  gowns  into  jackets  (for 
they  are  no  more  than  that  for  the  undergraduates)  fills  the  streets 
with  figures  almost  comic  in  place  of  the  old  grave  look,  and 
emblematizes  the  loss  of  dignity  and  self-respect  which  comes  to 
sacred  Church  homes  when  they  become  steps  in  worldly  life 
only — one  can  scarcely  look  at  Pembroke  and  think  of  Ridley 
and  Andrewes. 

Early  Communion  at  St  Luke's  Church. 

On  October  7th  he  writes  : — 

I  have  just  been  reading  Champion '  on  Socialism.  He  contrasts 
the  Lord's  "Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  travail  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  with  the  "Primate's  ^15,000  a 
year  and  two  palaces,"  and  his  recommending  to  the  East  End 
poor  "the  alleviation  of  spiritual  consolations."  Of  course  I 
never  did  in  that  bald  sort  of  way,  though  Headlam's  Church 
Reformer  chose  to  say  so  years  ago,  but  if  I  had — Are  not  the 
words  a  poor  paraphrase  simply  of  Christ's  saying  ?     And  if  they 

^  H.  H.  Champion,  at  a  later  period  Labour  Candidate  for  South 
Aberdeen. 


i887  TRANSLATING   COLLECTS  147 

only  knew  what  a  small  fraction  of  either  money  or  space  goes  for 
anything  except  to  provide  work  and  possibilities  of  work  ! 

So  Henson  at  the  Congress  held  it  a  mark  of  saintliness  in 
Aidan  that  he  would  not  ride,  because  he  was  the  Apostle  of 
Christ,  apparently  in  some  sort  of  contrast  with  us — and  perhaps 
it  may  have  been.  But  what  would  St  Aidan  have  done  if  he  had 
had  to  attend  four  Committees  in  a  morning  in  London  ?  It 
would  not  have  been  very  saintly,  but  very  agreeable,  to  cut  them 
because  he  would  not  ride  to  them. 

I  have  been  reading  Oldcastle  on  the  saintliness  of  Leo  XIII., 
much  exemplified  in  the  fact  that  he  rises  at  six  and  after  a  busy 
day  "retires  to  his  apartment  at  9.30."  About  eight  hours'  rest, 
and  may  his  sleep  be  sweet,  sweet  old  man  !  But  it  is  no  particular 
saintliness  to  be  called  at  6.30,  get  up  between  that  and  7,  accord- 
ing to  the  hour  the  night  before,  and  after  a  day  of  exceedingly 
hard  work,  with  ten  minutes'  sleep  sometime  on  most  days,  go  to 
bed  at  a  quarter  to  i  a.m.  This  I  have  been  obliged  to  do  now  for 
1 1  months  of  the  year  for  many  years,  not  only  here  but  at  Truro 
— and  am  not  so  far  the  worse  for  it.  God  keep  us  both  from 
selfishness,  and  our  enemies  from  slander — our  enemies  from 
believing  falsities,  and  us  from  contradicting  them.  Make  me  to 
know,  O  my  own  Master,  that  to  Thee  I  stand  or  fall,  but  grant 
me  to  commit  myself  in  trust  to  Thee — make  me  stand  to  Thee, 
and  answer  Thou  for  me. 

Oct.  11th.  I  have  taken  to  translating  Secretae  and  other 
Collects  for  my  dressing  hour  in  a  morning.  One  can  walk  about 
and  think  and  turn  them  every  way.  Years  and  years  ago  I  re- 
member Tennyson's  saying  there  was  no  exercise  in  English  tongue 
to  compare  with  translating  Collects.  The  Leonian  Sacramentary 
is  a  far  more  spiritual  body  of  prayer  than  the  Gelasian — and 
infinitely  more  so  than  the  Gregorian.  By  the  time  of  the  latter  I 
am  afraid  that  the  "  Sacrifice  "  has  come  very  often  to  be  limited 
to  those  of  the  Elements.  The  Gelasian  is  not  free  from  this — 
but  a  touch  in  the  English  is  often  sufficient  to  restore  the  "sancta," 
the  "  Manus,"  the  "  Sacrificium  "  to  its  full  sense  of  the  believer's 
whole  self  with  his  Lord's  perfect  Self-Dedication.  The  early 
Services  had  certainly  one  thread.  The  i8th  day  after  Pentecost 
(18  Sunday  after  Trinity)  has  for  instance  the  "  Deliverance  from 
sin  "  (diabolica  contagia)  kept  quite  plainly  in  its  second  collect 
and  Secreta  and  Post-Communion.  And  I  am  much  mistaken  if, 
in  the  disjointing  and  repatching  which  has  gone  on,  these  have 


148  TRURO   CATHEDRAL  aet.  58 

not  been  parted  from  their  proper  Epistle  and  Gospel  on  the 
same  subject,  those  now  attached  to  the  19th  Sunday.  They  give 
a  happy  savour  to  the  days. 

On  Oct.  1 6th  he  writes  : — 

Much  struck  with  Mr  Felly's  observation  that  there  is  nothing 
more  needed  than  a  Lay  Office  Book  for  Emigrants — a  book  not 
to  be  a  substitute  for  or  hindrance  to  the  Prayer  Book,  but  a  book 
which  shall  enable  good  laymen  of  the  Church  to  hold  services 
which  shall  hold  our  people  together  in  the  wildernesses  of  the 
Colonies,  and  to  attract  others  to  them,  and  to  raise  up  a  spirit 
which  shall  as  soon  as  possible  make  them  effect  an  establishment 
of  means  of  grace  and  a  resident  ministry  among  themselves. 
This  I  take  to  be  the  meaning  of  his  short  remark  and  I  have 
sketched  a  plan  of  it  to-day.  I  must  endeavour  to  work  this 
out.     I  feel  the  immense  possible  import  of  it. 

On  the  3rd  of  November  the  Cathedral  Church  of 
St  Mary's,  Truro,  was  consecrated.  It  was  the  material 
fulfilment  of  the  Archbishop's  most  poetical  dream.  His 
own  translation  of  "  Urbs  beata "  was  sung — singularly- 
appropriate  when  his  own  "peaceful  vision,  dim-descried" 
had  been  thus  fulfilled.  My  father  preached  on  "  In  due 
season  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not"  (Gal.  vi.  9).  He 
writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Nov.  Tyrd.  Truro  Cathedral  consecrated ;  hopeless  to  describe 
after  the  manner  of  describers.  The  building  far  finer  and  purer 
than  we  ever  dared  to  hope,  and  finished  to  two  first  bays  of 
nave  up  to  triforium.  The  Southern  Rose,  built  by  Wellington 
boys,  gave  me  intense  pleasure.  When  I  was  a  boy,  and  through 
my  undergraduateship  and  onward,  whenever  I  was  at  Service  in 
any  Cathedral,  I  used  to  pray  vehemently  that  God  "  would  bring 
back  the  holy  and  great  spirit  to  England  which  had  in  its  time 
raised  this  Cathedral."  I  felt  that  the  Cathedral  represented  a 
power  which  had  been  suffered  to  fade  away.  "  Restore  that 
spirit"  was  a  prayer  for  many  things.  Few  things  have  I  to  be 
more  thankful  for  than  to  see  it  "restored  to  us." 

It  has  been  very  interesting  to  arrange  the  Service  with  the 
blessed  Bishop  on  better  principles  than  of  late,  and  old  con- 
versations  now    39   years   and    34   years   ago   with    Christopher 


THE     CHOIR,     TRURO     CATHEDRAL. 
From  a  photograph  by  Argall,   Trtiro. 


To  fnce  page  148,  vol.  it 


i887  CONSECRATION  149 

Sidgwick  have  been  useful  to  me.  He  used  to  doubt  whether 
the  old  Service  consecrated  anything.  It  only  prayed  for  people 
in  the  future.  I  have  ventured  to  believe  that  the  Author  and 
Blesser  and  Giver  of  our  material  things  knows  how  to,  and 
can,  and  does  bless  them.  "Bless  this  Corner  Stone"  we  prayed 
when  we  laid  the  foundation — and  now  "We  Consecrate  this 
place — Hallow  these  things."  God's  Blessing  has  rested  on  this 
faith. 

The  Cathedral  has  sprung  to  its  perfect  power  and  beauty, 
its  magnificence  of  fittings  and  splendour  of  vessels  out  of  a  soil 
dry,  cold,  and  unwilling  to  bear  it. 

Every  day  that  week  the  Cathedral  was  crammed  with  the 
ordinary  parishioners  of  every  deanery — each  (or  each  two)  had 
its  Services  appointed — on  the  Friday  I  saw  it  crowded  with  the 
people  from  the  two  extreme  deaneries,  Penarth  and  Stratton. 
Powder^  alone  had  2000  tickets.  Labourers,  fishermen  and  wives, 
farmers  who  work  with  their  own  hands,  many  of  them  dissenters 
— all  now  talk  of  "our  Cathedral,"  and  are  emulous  in  giving  to 
it — and  such  a  Catholic  and  religious  and  English  Church  ! 

There  was  a  nice  incident  in  the  Consecration.  Just  as  the 
Bishop  was  signing  the  sentence  of  consecration.  Bishop  of 
Salisbury  whispered  to  me,  "Shouldn't  the  Prince  of  Wales  be 
asked  to  witness  it?"  I  sent  him  to  Bishop  of  Truro  to  suggest 
it,  who  sent  him  on  to  the  Prince's  dais.  The  Prince  assented, 
but  instead  of  waiting  for  the  parchment  to  be  brought  up, 
instantly  came  down  from  his  place  and  went  up  the  Altar  steps 
and  signed  it  there  on  the  little  table  set  in  front  of  the  Altar — 
a  real  little  bit  of  reverence. 

The  Bishop  is  perfect.  His  very  spare  frame  and  face,  his 
deep  olive  complexion  and  tight  drawn  skin,  close  jet  black  hair, 
compressed  lips,  and  deep,  restrained,  tender,  devout  eyes,  are 
a  very  portrait  of  a  believer  and  a  Bishop. 

Tou^ards  the  end  of  the  month  he  writes  : — 

The  Bishop  of  Truro  sent  me  two  letters  to  read.  One  says, 
"At  the  Service  in  the  Cathedral  during  the  Benediction  the 
great  happiness  came — our  light  seemed  to  come  all  at  once, 
and  I  realised  His  Love  and  Forgiveness  as  I  had  never  done 
before — such  great  joy,  and  a  great  part  of  the  joy  was  that   I 

1  The  name  of  a  Rural  Deanery  in  the  Truro  Diocese. 


ISO  OEDIPUS    REX  AET.  58 

realised  at  the  same  time  that  though  troubles  and  doubts  and 
temptations  would  come  the  peace  would  be  there  too." 

Another  from  a  poor  working  man  says,  "I  cannot  express 
to  you  what  I  felt  in  the  Cathedral,  Thursday,  3rd  Nov.  I  was 
struck  with  my  thoughts  of  the  Heaven  of  Heavens  to  come. 
When  the  Attendants,  Bishops  and  Canons  with  the  host  (N.B. 
the  procession,  not  a  wafer)  entered  the  Cathedral,  I  thought 
to  myself  it  was  Heaven  upon  earth.  I  felt  it  good  to  be  there. 
I  was  also  there,  wife  and  four  daughters,  the  following  morning. 
They  may  well  sing,  'Holy,  Holy,  Holy.'  Also  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  chose  as  his  text,  '  In  due  season  we  shall  reap  if 
we  faint  not.'     That  is  my  object." 

That  is  as  it  should  be — ^as  I  always  knew  it  would  be.  The 
Cornishman  beginning  to  find  peace  in  a  Cathedral.  He  could 
not  have  done  that  five  years  since.  And  what  a  sweet  place 
for  him  to  find  it  in. 

On  Nov.  26th,  he  went  to  Cambridge  to  see  the  Oedipus 
Rex  acted.     He  writes  : — 

Nov.  26.  The  representation  was  beautiful  and  accurate. 
The  music  expressive  in  the  highest  degree  but  too  loud.  There 
should  be  but  two  or  three  thin  instruments.  The  words  of  the 
chorus  were  drowned  deep.  locasta  was  finely  acted  throughout, 
and  the  minor  characters  excellent,  as  in  the  University  is  matter 
of  course.  Oedipus  swift  and  noisy  till  the  last  scene,  in  which 
his  awful  appearance  actually  seemed  to  impress  himself  and  he 
rose  immensely.  It  was  with  a  real  thrill,  not  soon  recovered 
from,  that  I  saw  and  heard  him — and  so  say  others.  The  Greek 
Play  always  was  to  me  the  finest  form  of  human  composition — 
and  it  has  gained  by  this  sight  of  it,  not  lost. 

We  had  a  discussion  at  the  Lodge  on  the  declaration  of 
Miss  Anderson  and  of  Hallam  Tennyson  that  as  an  aesthetic 
question — apart  from  the  gloom  of  horror  which  hangs  over  a 
stage,  of  whose  woes  the  audience  is  so  momently  conscious — 
the  subject  was  too  shocking  to  represent.  "  Bad  taste  ! " — why 
it  was  in  "good  taste"  in  the  land  of  "taste" — high,  high  above 
ours. 

In  Greece  I  think  it  could  never  have  risen  in  this  form. 
Oedipus  was  a  terrible  chapter  of  their  Old  Testament.  Sophocles 
is  ever  for  the  aypa<^oi  v6\xoi '.     And  there  must  have  been  need 

^   Unwritten  laws. 


i887  VISIT   TO    LINCOLN  151 

enough  for  insisting  then  on  ei'vo/xot  yaixm  '  as  the  foundation 
of  Society.  This  is,  I  think,  why  Sophocles  makes  Oedipus  so 
proud  and  so  careless  of  blood  (not  only  the  old  man's,  but 
KTeivto  St  Tov^  ^vfjiTrai'Ta<;^  without  a  qualm  of  conscience),  and 
locasta  so  utterly  sceptical  of  revelation.  Even  ^/lese,  even  then, 
find  an  unconscious  sin  against  natural  laws  of  family  intolerable, 
and  maddening,  and  desperate. 

The  finest  touch  of  Oedipus'  fearful  hardness  is  that — which 

locasta  after  all  says — ovSev   yap   av   irpa^aiix    av   Siv   ov  croL  e^t'Aov'. 

He  has  not  a  word  to  say  of  her  more  insupportable  share. 

On  Dec.  4th,  he  preached  at  the  reopening  of  St  Peter- 
at-Gowts,  Lincoln.     He  wrote  : — 

Z>ec.  4.  Went  on  the  3rd  to  Lincoln  at  the  request  of  the 
working-men  of  the  parish  of  St  Peter-at-Gowts  whose  efforts 
have  raised  half  of  the  ^2000  which  the  enlargement  of  their 
Church  has  cost.  Their  good  Vicar,  Townsend,  one  of  the  first 
of  my  Scholae  Cancellarii  pupils,  has  found  the  rest.  I  tried 
to  preach  to  ^/lem  only  and  their  faces  preached  to  me.  Dined 
and  slept  at  the  Bishop's,  who  asked  the  Chapter,  breakfasted 
at  the  Deanery.  At  night  came  "  the  college  "  and  next  morning 
the  Vicars.  Every  one  I  meet  I  know.  And  the  meetings  give 
me  again  the  strong  Lincolnshire  breeze  of  steady  Li/e.  At 
2.30,  baptized  the  Chancellor's  5th  babe  in  Remigius'  basalt 
font;  a  large  devout  congregation  did  indeed  Amen  him  into 
the  Church — a  large  gathering  too  at  the  Communion  which  I 
celebrated  at  8.  The  Bishop  went  to  the  Consecration  of  St  Peter- 
at-Gowts  at  8 — in  white  cope — if  he  had  a  mitre  he  hid  it.  I 
saw  him  off. 

From  3  to  4  went  with  him  over  the  fine  new  palace — an  odd 
phenomenon  if  the  next  step  is  disestablishment.  His  delight 
is  to  think  how  the  wives  of  the  simple  Fen  clergy  will  enjoy 
his  drawing-room.     He  plans  all  for  his  clergy. 

To  Choir  Service  at  4 — very  happy.  At  6.30,  Evening  Service, 
again  2000  people — they  clearly  enjoyed  it.  But  the  music  was 
much  too  soft  and  the  Dean's  sermon  much  too  hard. 

The  new  Chapel  at  the  Palace  is  rather  striking.  It  ought 
to  be  considering  that  it  is  the  destruction  of  the  old  pantry  and 

1  Lawful  marriages.  '''  But  I  slay  them  all.     Oed.  Tyr.  813. 

*   Nothing  will  I  do  save  at  thy  good  pleasure.     1.  862. 


152  ORDINATION  aet.  58 

buttery  and  that  the  antient  Bishop's  solar,  an  almost  unique 
one  for  glory,  now  forms  the  clerestory  of  the  Chapel.  But  any- 
thing can  be  forgiven  to  this  Bishop,  so  sweet  and  so  manly. 
Thank  God  for  the  Lincoln  time. 

Dec.  18.  Addington.  Ordained  15  men — one  of  the  most 
happy  weeks  we  have  ever  had.  Crowfoot  gave  the  addresses  in 
Chapel — two  daily  till  Saturday  evening,  when  I  gave  one.  His 
were  most  spiritual  in  tone,  clear  in  teaching,  and  exquisite  in 
language — without  a  note.  The  men  grew  plainly  in  earnestness 
and  freedom.  Every  evening  we  had  a  good  talk  round  the  table 
after  dinner — one  night  Foreign  Missions,  another  the  Assyrian 
work,  the  third  certain  parochial  matters. 

I  really  believe  that,  as  "prospects"  in  the  Church  look  less 
prosperous,  the  men  will  multiply  to  whom  it  is  a  sacrifice  to  give 
up  the  world.  One  of  these  has  deliberately  sacrificed  a  great 
position  in  Manchester,  and  C a  very  large  London  practice. 

The  examination  was  held  in  October,  so  that  the  men  are 
without  any  "conscious"  anxiety  at  this  time,  and  their  growth, 
visible  growth,  in  the  calm  and  quiet  of  Ember  week  thus  spent 
in  the  Chapel,  in  a  sort  of  community  life,  and,  I  think,  in  the 
most  potent  retired  beauty  and  space  of  the  woods  here,  makes 
us  feel  what  would  be  gained  by  us  all  if  we  could  have  anything 
like  a  real  life  of  devotion  for  even  fractions  of  our  spinning 
days. 

How  thankful  I  am  for  Addington  in  its  strong  spiritual 
influences  of  rest  in  activity,  its  quiet  and  sweetness  are 
everything  to  me  and  to  these. 

He  spent  the  winter  at  Addington.     He  writes  : — 

Dec.  22.  A  fine  cold  ride  with  three  children — and  an  ex- 
cellent discussion  with  them  on  the  technical  skill  of  the  Mid- 
summer Nighfs  Dream.  And  much  fast  riding  beside.  The 
weather  and  soil  exactly  to  the  horses'  tastes,  and  the  stubble 
fields  all  open.  If  it  were  not  for  this  free  riding  in  this  perfectly 
restful  country,  away  from  all  villas  and  roads,  I  do  not  believe 
I  could  healthily  carry  on  this  work  which  lasts  from  7  a.m.  to 
12.30  every  night.  And  yet  the  amount  of  it  is  not  so  con- 
suming of  the  brain  as  is  the  extraordinary  variety  of  it.  In  one 
way  or  other  every  class  and  every  country  have  to  be  touched 
and  kept  distinct  in  this  office  of  the  Church.  It  so  happens 
that  God  gives  me  almost  the  liking  for  turning  over  the  Church's 


i887  DIFFICULTIES   OF   WORK  153 

pages  in  this  way.  It  will  be  very  easy  for  my  Lord  to  give  me 
the  signal  when  my  work  is  done,  for  not  a  day  could  I  get 
through  but  for  Him,  and  I  feel  that  a  slight  touch  of  His  Hand 
would  render  it  impossible.  Only  when  it  is  done  I  pray  that 
He  may  not  have  found  me  too  absorbed  in  //  and  too  little 
in  Him — even  though  it  is  His.  The  only  part  that  I  really  do 
not  like  is  the  legislative.  It  is  well  enough  to  draw  out  rules 
and  laws,  which  could  be  well  worked,  and  which  are  not  "  lunar  " 
but  have  a  due  regard  to  human  nature,  but  it  is  another  thing  in 
these  delicate  barks  to  shoot  the  roaring,  mocking,  querulous, 
fantastic,  wilful  rapids  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament.  Nothing 
can  live  through  them  that  is  much  more  complete  than  a  branch- 
less log.     Yet — yet — yet  Deus  providit — providet — providebit. 

Dec.  24.  I  never  can  be  possibly  grateful  enough  for  this 
quiet  country  home.  The  work  being  so  hard,  long,  various 
and  anxious  as  it  is,  the  power  is  worth  anything  in  the  world 
of  being  able  to  ride  out  into  mere  lonely  country,  woods,  copses, 
fields,  sterile  valleys,  by-paths,  lanes,  ancient  trees, — all  the  things 
and  sights  which  God  has  made  to  refresh  men  and  renew  them, 
are  mine  for  an  hour  and  a  half  daily,  and  sometimes  a  little  more. 
No  railway  station,  no  villas,  no  whistle  even — no  one  to  meet 
or  see  but  the  simplest  people  at  the  most  rustic  tasks.  The 
conformation  of  ground  which  keeps  the  London  smoke  clear 
away,  and  which  has  led  the  railways  down  valleys  lying  so  far 
apart  and  so  far  off  this,  leaving  this  untouched  country  in 
such  an  oblique  angle  of  railroads,  is  a  marvellous  gift  of  God, 
and  work  early  and  late,  or  rather  early  to  early,  does  not  seem 
to  hurt  one  at  all  so  long  as  one  has  such  air,  such  exercise,  such 
sights.  At  Lambeth,  in  spite  of  all  one  can  do  to  get  exercise 
and  refreshment,  every  day  leaves  one  a  little  more  and  a  little 
more  depressed.  Here,  in  spite  of  all  one  can  do  to  give  all 
time  to  work  and  to  cram  work  into  time,  one  gets  stronger  and 
more  vigorous  every  day. 

Dec.  25.  The  day  when  the  Great  King  entered  such  a  life 
of  service — reproves  one  tenderly  yet  bitterly  for  making  so  much 
of  one's  work.  How  do  I  know  but  that  the  resenting  of  its 
galling  by  fretting,  chafing,  murmuring,  is  not  the  real  secret 
why  my  Hugh  dislikes  and  shrinks  from  work,  and  seems  abso- 
lutely set  on  life's  yielding  him  as  much  innocent  (thank  God  !) 
"fun"  as  can  be  extracted  from  its  hours.  How  do  I  know 
but  that  the  grumbling  at  the  pressure  of  sermons,  of  speeches, 


154  THE   OLD   YEAR  aet.  58 

on  God's  Holy  work  of  different  kinds,  of  correspondence  on 
Church  matters  and  clerical  details  (and  I  do  express  myself 
too  freely  on  such  matters,  and  on  the  faults  of  the  clerical 
character  as  they  deploy  before  me),  may  not  be  the  cause  of  my 
not  having  the  greatest  of  all  joys?  Have  I  myself  to  thank 
that  we  do  less  for  God's  service  than  many,  many  placed  in 
positions  where  such  service  would  be  almost  impossible  to  pro- 
cure? I  must  do  my  work  without  all  this  speech  of  its  cold 
and  windy  side.  Do  I  ever  speak  of  the  side  which  is  true  delight 
to  me?  I  promised,  as  a  Deacon,  I  would  do  "«//  this,  gladly 
and  willingly."  Have  I  done  very  far  from  "all  this,"  and  as 
flatly,  as  sighingly,  as  it  could  be  done?  "O  help  me  against 
the  enemy" — mine  own  self. 

He  rose  to  a  somewhat  more  hopeful  strain  before  the 
end  of  the  year ;  in  a  letter  to  Professor  Westcott  the  next 
day  he  wrote  : — 

If  there  were  not  an  Old  Year  with  its  troubles  and  regrets 
and  disappointments,  there  would  be  no  new  birth  of  new  time 
from  the  Birth  of  Christ.  The  dying  down  of  one's  own  spirit 
as  well  as  of  one's  life  seems  essential.  But  you  whose  books  are 
helping  us  so  can  hardly  have  patience  with  these  smaller  troubles. 
It  is  a  help  even  to  know  that  great  troubles  follow  great  thoughts 
as  well  as  give  promise  of  greater. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    CHURCHES    OF   THE    EAST. 

"  Qui  sunt  isti  qui  ut  nubes  volatit,  et  quasi  colutnbae  ad 
fenestras  suas?"     Isaiah  lx.  8. 

The  year  1886  saw  the  actual  beginning  of  a  new 
development  which  the  Archbishop  had  long  pondered  and 
desired.  Mr  Athelstan  Riley,  who  sends  me  notes  on  the 
relations  with  the  Eastern  Churches,  writes : — 

I  was  introduced  to  your  father  in  1883  by  Dr  Magee,  then 
Bishop  of  Peterborough,  just  before  my  journey  to  the  Monasteries 
of  Mount  Athos.  The  Archbishop  asked  me  to  collect  infor- 
mation for  him  and  on  my  return  took  much  interest  in  all  the 
details  of  my  visit  to  the  great  monastic  settlement  of  the  Greek 
Church.  The  following  year  he  asked  me  to  go  to  Persia  and 
Kurdistan  on  a  mission  of  enquiry  into  the  condition  and  needs  of 
the  East-Syrian  or  Nestorian  Church,  an  enquiry  which  resulted 
in  the  foundation  of  the  present  Assyrian  Mission  in  1886.  From 
1884  to  within  a  few  months  of  his  death  I  was  in  constant 
communication  with  the  Archbishop,  either  personally  or  by 
letter,  on  different  matters  relating  to  Eastern  Christendom,  or 
on  work  he  had  entrusted  to  me  in  connection  therewith ;  I  had, 
therefore,  special  opportunities  of  studying  his  attitude  towards 
the  Orientals.  He  was  very  much  attracted  by  the  Eastern 
Churches  and  took  extraordinary  pains  and  trouble  over  his 
communications  with  their  Patriarchs  and  Bishops.  The  secret 
of  this  attraction  lay,  I  think,  in  the  position  of  these  Churches, 
which  appealed  powerfully  to  his  mind.  What  may  be  called 
in  a  special  sense  ecclesiastical  subjects, — Church  history  and 
architecture,  liturgies,  ritual, — -were  his  particular  delight  and 
study,  and  of  these  the  East  provides  a  lavish  store.     Again,  the 


156  METROPOLITAN    OF   KIEFF  aet.  59 

splendour  and  vigour  of  the  Eastern  Churches  in  days  gone  by 
stirred  his  imagination  whilst  their  present  condition  of  oppression 
and  weakness  appealed  to  that  chivalrous  temper  which  always 
appeared  to  me  a  very  marked  characteristic  of  the  Archbishop. 
Lastly,  the  antagonistic  position  of  the  Eastern  Churches  towards 
the  Papacy  undoubtedly  weighed  much  with  him. 

This  last  point  among  others  is  brought  out  in  the 
letter  of  congratulation  written  to  the  Metropolitan  of 
Kieff  in  1888  on  the  nine-hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
conversion  of  Russia. 

Edward,  by  Divine  Providence  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Primate  of  all  England  and  Metropolitan,  to  our  Brother  greatly 
beloved  in  the  Faith  and  Worship  of  the  All  Holy  and  Undivided 
Trinity,  Platon,  by  Divine  Providence  the  Most  Reverend  Metro- 
politan of  Kieff  and  Galicia,  Greeting  in  the  Lord. 

Intelligence  having  reached  us  of  the  approaching  Festival  at 
the  City  of  Kieff  the  Great,  we  remembering  the  Commandment 
of  the  Blessed  Apostle  x'^'-P^'-^  f^^'^"'-  X'^'P^'*''^*"'''  embrace  this 
opportunity  of  communicating  to  your  Grace,  and  through  your 
Grace  to  the  Bishops  and  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  Church  of 
Russia,  our  most  sincere  sympathy  and  good  will. 

Great  festivities  are  commonly  either  religious  or  national. 
This  celebration  which  you  are  holding  is  indeed  in  the  first  place 
religious.  But  it  is  also  national  in  the  highest  way.  It  is  a 
thankful  recognition  before  God  of  the  sacred  fact  that  Russia 
owes  all  that  she  has  as  yet  attained  of  power  and  dignity  amongst 
the  nations  of  Christendom,  not  merely  to  the  sagacity  of  her 
rulers  and  the  inborn  strength  of  her  peoples.  You  offer  your 
thanksgivings  to  God  because  your  branch  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  Church,  which  you  reverently  link  with  the  name 
of  the  Holy  Apostle  St  Andrew,  has  been  co-extensive  with  your 
nation,  and  because  the  Christian  Faith  through  the  agency  of 
the  illustrious  St  Vladimir^,  whose  conversion  you  now  comme- 
morate, has  illuminated  your  people  through  nine  long  centuries 
of  History. 

^  To  rejoice  with  those  who  rejoice. 

*  Vladimir,  for  some  time  a  monster  of  cruelty  and  debauchery,  a  murderer 
and  usurper,  was  converted,  and  baptised  at  Constantinople,  and  at  the  same 
time  married  Anne,  the  Byzantine  princess.  By  an  edict  he  ordered  all  his 
subjects  to  be  baptised  on  a  given  day. 


i888  THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH  157 

He  goes  on  to  explain  that  his  desire  to  send  a  liishop 
to  represent  the  Church  of  England  at  the  Festival  could 
not  be  carried  out  on  account  of  the  Meeting  of  the 
Lambeth  Conference. 

We  find  therefore  that  it  would  not  be  fitting  for  one  of  their 
number  who  are  assembled  from  all  the  parts  of  the  world  to  quit 
this  solemn  gathering  during  its  session.  Thus,  we  are,  much 
to  our  regret  and  disappointment,  compelled  to  abandon  our 
intention,  and  to  convey  by  this  present  letter  our  humble  and 
fraternal  congratulations  to  your  Grace  and  to  the  Church  in 
which  you  worthily  bear  rule. 

Our  beloved  brothers  will  rejoice  in  the  announcement  that 
we  have  communicated  to  you  the  felicitations  and  congratula- 
tions and  the  assurance  of  prayer  on  behalf  of  your  rejoicing 
multitude  in  which  we  know  that  all  will  be  of  one  heart  and  of 
one  soul. 

The  Russian  and  the  Anglican  Church  have  common  foes. 
Alike  we  have  to  guard  our  independence  against  the  Papal 
aggressiveness  which  claims  to  subordinate  all  the  Churches  of 
Christ  to  the  See  of  Rome.  Alike  we  have  to  protect  our  flocks 
from  teachers  of  new  and  strange  doctrines  adverse  to  that  Holy 
Faith  which  was  handed  down  to  us  by  the  Holy  Apostles  and 
Ancient  Fathers  of  the  Catholic  Church.  But  the  weapons  of 
our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  and  by  mutual  sympathy  and  prayer 
that  we  may  be  one  iv  tois  Seo-ju-ots  tov  EvayyeAtov'  we  shall 
encourage  each  other,  and  promote  the  salvation  of  all  men. 

Praying  therefore  earnestly  in  the  Spirit  for  the  Unity  of  all 
men  in  the  Faith  of  the  Gospel  laid  down  and  expounded  by  the 
Oecumenical  Councils  of  the  Undivided  Church  of  Christ,  and  in 
the  living  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
We  ever  remain, 

Your  Grace's  most  faithful  and  devoted 
Servant  and  Brother  in  the  Lord, 

(signed)  Edw.  Cantuar. 

Given  at  our  Palace  of  Lambeth  in  London  and  sealed  with 
our  Archiepiscopal  Seal  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  July  in  the  year 
of  our  Salvation   1888. 

^   "In  the  bonds  of  the  Gospel,"  Phileni.  13. 


158  THE   METROPOLITAN'S   REPLY  aet.  59 

Mr  Riley  says: — 

The  Archbishop's  letter  was  a  wholly  unexpected  courtesy 
from  a  Church  of  which  the  Russian  Bishops  knew  next  to 
nothing.  It  made  a  very  great  impression  in  Russia  (as  the 
following  letter  will  show)  and  not  only  roused  immediate 
interest  in  the  Anglican  Communion,  but  led  to  friendly  ecclesi- 
astical intercourse  in  spite  of  the  unfortunate  political  relations 
between  England  and  Russia. 

Reply  of  the  Metropolitan  of  Kieff, 

To  our  Beloved  Brother  in  Jesus  Christ,  Edward,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  Primate  of  Great  Britain. 

I,  Platon,  by  the  Grace  of  the  Almighty,  Metropolitan  of  Kieff 
and  Galitz,  wish  you  joy  and  happiness  in  the  Lord. 

I,  in  the  first  place,  wish  to  present  to  you,  my  Beloved 
Brother  in  Christ,  my  most  sincere  thanks  and  likewise  the  same 
gratitude  in  the  name  of  all  the  Russians  present  in  Kieff  on  the 
occasion  of  the  commemoration  of  the  900  years'  Jubilee  of  the 
Baptism  of  the  Russian  Nation,  for  your  amiable  congratulations 
on  the  occasion  of  this  festivity.  Your  words  are  particularly 
agreeable  to  us,  as  the  expression  of  Christian  love  and  faith,  and 
the  more  to  be  appreciated,  as  no  representative  of  the  other 
Western  Churches  sent  similar  congratulations. 

In  the  course  of  the  letter  the  Metropolitan  says  : — 

I  quite  agree  that  the  Russian  and  English  Churches  have 
the  same  common  enemies  whom  you  mention  in  your  epistle, 
and  that  we  ought  to  strive  together  and  mutually  help  each  other. 
But  to  do  this,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  our  two  Churches 
should  have  a  more  complete  spiritual  union.  Our  Holy  Church 
sincerely  desires  this  union  and  therefore  at  each  of  our  Divine 
Services  She  implores  our  Divine  Lord  "  to  give  peace  to  the 
whole  world,  to  protect  the  Christian  Confessions  and  to  unite 
them  all." 

As  you  likewise  express  in  your  epistle  your  desire  to  be 
united  to  us  iv  tul<;  Seo-^Aoi?  Tov  €vayye\Lov ',  I  beg  you  to  explain 
and  inform  me  under  what  conditions  you  find  it  possible  to  unite 
our  Churches. 

In  communion  with  you,  I  faithfully  implore  the  mercy  of  our 

^  "In  the  bonds  of  the  Gospel,"  Philem.  13. 


POSSIBILITIES   OF   UNION 


159 


Divine  Lord  that  He  may  incline  all  mankind  to  a  religious  union 
and  the  acknowledgement  of  the  Son  of  God  Almighty.  And  I, 
on  my  part,  wish  from  all  my  soul  that  our  Divine  Lord  may 
protect  you  in  His  mercy,  as  well  as  all  England,  and  preserve 
you  all  in  perfect  prosperity. 

With  sentiments  of  profound  respect, 

I  remain, 

Your  Grace's  most  devoted  servant  and  brother  in  Christ. 

Kiev,  Russia. 

Sept.  14,  1888. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  how  important  was  the  question 
asked.  The  Archbishop  prepared  an  outline  of  the  reply 
he  proposed  to  make  which  met  with  the  approval  of  the 
Bishops'  meeting  before  whom  it  was  laid.  The  reply  was 
finally  despatched  on  March  5th,  1889.  In  the  course  of 
this  letter  he  said  : — 

His  Reverence  (the  Reverend  Eugene  Smirnoff,  Chaplain  to 
the  Russian  Embassy)  also  delivered  to  me  at  the  same  time 
a  copy  of  the  speech  which  His  Excellency  the  Imperial  Chief 
Procurator  delivered  before  a  vast  assembly  of  Russian  Church- 
men expressing  in  warm  terms  that  sense  of  Christian  fellowship 
towards  our  English  Church  and  Churchmen  which  animated  the 
heart  of  the  Leaders  of  Clergy  and  people  in  your  Holy  Church. 

Your  own  expressions  as  well  as  those  of  M.  Pobyedonostseff' 
call  for  the  most  lively  recognition  and  for  devout  thankfulness. 
They  assure  us  that  we  receive  alike  the  common  hope  which 
inspires,  and  the  unrighteous  pretensions  which  would  blight,  the 
desire  for  true  Catholic  union  among  the  world-dispersed  members 
of  Christ.  That  is  a  glorious  vision  whose  fulfilment  depends  on 
the  sincerity  of  believers  and  on  their  living  unity  with  their  one 
Head. 

I  confess  that  I  was  scarcely  prepared  to  expect  an  enquiry 
so  direct  as  you  propose  to  me,  and  my  whole  heart  goes  out  in 
answer  to  it,  as  if  the  consummation  we  long  for  must  be  nearer 
than  we  believed. 

Your  Holiness  invites  me  to  express  to  you  "  what  are  the 
conditions  under  which  I  find  it  possible  to  unite  our  Churches." 

^  Procurator-General  of  the  Holy  Synod. 


i6o  POINTS   OF  ACCORD  aet.  59 

In  considering  what  answer  I  ought  to  return  to  this  most 
important  question — no  question  more  important  has  been  asked 
for  centuries — I  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  two  things  are 
essential  to  a  real  union  : 

1.  First  and  above  all,  the  drawing  together  of  the  hearts  of 
the  individuals  composing  the  two  Churches  which  would 
fain  "be  at  one  together." 

2.  Secondly,  a  more  or  less  formal  acceptance  of  each  other's 
position  with  toleration  for  any  points  of  difference  :  non- 
interference with  each  other  upon  any  such  points. 

1.  As  to  the  first  of  these  two  conditions,  among  Christian 
worshippers  it  resolves  itself  into  this  question — Would  the  two 
Churches  of  Russia  and  of  England  be  willing  each  to  admit  the 
Clergy  and  the  Faithful  Laity  of  the  other,  as  individuals,  to  be 
partakers  of  the  Holy  Communion  even  as  they  allow  their  own 
children  to  partake  of  that  Feast  of  Love  upon  their  Lord's 
Sacrifice  ? 

2.  The  second  point  would  require  much  longer  consider- 
ation :  but  if  the  first  was  acknowledged  and  acted  upon,  there 
would  exist  a  basis  of  practical  unity  on  which  might  be  built  the 
more  formal  structure. 

Two  questions  seem  to  present  themselves  here : 

(a)  Would  the  two  Churches  mutually  acknowledge  the 
Historic  verity  and  reality  of  each  other's  Holy  Orders? 

As  a  contribution  to  the  settlement  of  this  question  from  the 
English  side,  I  shall  do  myself  the  honour  shortly  of  consigning 
to  your  Holiness  four  Works'  which  will  present  in  due  form,  with 
the  necessary  historical  evidence,  the  proof  of  the  authenticity 
and  continuity  of  the  Holy  Orders  of  the  Church  of  England. 
These  works  I  commend  to  those  Scholars  and  Divines  of  your 
Holiness'  Communion  who  may  not  yet  have  given  their  attention 
to  the  subject.  And  I  would  ask  your  Holiness  in  return  to 
communicate  to  us  some  authentic  account  of  the  corresponding 
history  and  evidences  of  the  Church  of  Russia. 

(^)  With  regard  to  the  non-interference  with  such  points 
of  difference  as  are,  however  great  their  intrinsic  importance,  of 
less  moment  than  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Bond  of  Faith 
and  thirst  after  the  Righteousness  of  Christ,  there  is  one  which 

^  The  books  sent  were  (i)  Episcopal  Succession  in  England  (Stubbs), 
(2)  Validity  of  English  Orders  (Courayer),  {3)  Apostolic  Succession  (Haddan), 
(4)  Ordinationum  Ecclesiae  Anglicanae  Defensio  (Bailey). 


1896-1897  THE   CHURCH   OF   RUSSIA  161 

can  scarcely  be  passed  over  in  honesty,  namely,  The  Procession 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life.  But  we  do  not 
doubt  that  a  formula  of  agreement  on  this  question  might  be 
arrived  at,  drawn  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  which  are 
reverenced  both  by  ourselves  and  the  Eastern  Church. 

The  consideration  of  the  paragraphs  numbered  2  (a),  2  (d) 
must  necessarily  be  postponed  for  examination.  It  is  not  possible 
that  your  Holiness  should  give,  or  that  I  should  expect,  an 
immediate  answer. 

But  if  in  the  meantime  the  hearts  of  Christ's  faithful  people 
should  be  so  drawn  together  that  in  scattered  folds  the  Unity  of 
the  one  Flock  under  one  Shepherd  should  be  acknowledged  and 
acted  upon  in  the  admission  of  Faithful  Members  to  Communion 
with  one  another  and  with  Him,  He  would,  we  believe,  in  His 
time  work  out  for  us  both  spiritual  and  intellectual  approaches. 

I  would  therefore  shortly  outline  an  answer  to  your  Holiness' 
enquiry  by  saying  that  I  should  understand  that  the  first  step 
would  be  the  admission  of  religious  believers  to  Holy  Communion 
in  either  Church.  And  that  the  second  step  would  be  the 
serious  consideration  (taking  abundant  time  for  the  purpose)  of 
whether  any  impediments,  disciplinary  or  doctrinal,  exist,  which 
still  render  necessary  the  formal  separation  in  which  for  strange 
reasons  we  find  ourselves  placed. 

In  later  years  other  opportunities  of  courteous  recog- 
nition occurred,  and  the  presence  of  Dr  Mandell  Creighton 
(then  Bishop  of  Peterborough)  on  behalf  of  the  English 
Church  at  the  coronation  of  the  Tzar  in  1896,  and  the 
mission  of  Antonius,  Archbishop  of  Finland,  to  represent 
the  Church  of  Russia  at  the  Queen's  Jubilee  in  1897  are 
the  direct  and  most  recent  results  of  the  Archbishop's 
policy  of  fostering  good  feeling  between  the  Anglican 
Communion  and  Oriental  Christendom  in  general  and  the 
Orthodox  Church  of  the  East  in  particular. 

The  Archbishop,  writing  to  the  Bishop  of  Winchester 
in   1896,  says: — 

I  trust  the  personal  intercourse  of  any  bishop,  so  received, 
will  help  those  good  feelings  to  strengthen  themselves,  on  which 
more  may  be  built  hereafter. 

B.   II.  II 


i62  THE   BISHOPRIC   OF   JERUSALEM  aet.  53 

But  undoubtedly  the  most  important  points  otherwise 
in  which  the  Archbishop  was  brought  into  connection  with 
Eastern  Christendom  were  with  regard  to  the  revival  of 
the  Jerusalem  Bishopric  and  the  mission  to  the  oppressed 
Church  of  the  Assyrian   Christians. 

The  foundation  of  the  Bishopric  of  Jerusalem  in  1841 
was  due  in  part,  it  will  be  remembered,  to  a  somewhat 
visionary  scheme  entertained  by  the  Chevalier  Bunsen, 
who  thought  the  joint  action  of  England  and  Germany  in 
founding  such  a  Bishopric  might  weld  Protestants  together 
as  well  as  furnish  a  centre  of  enlightened  Christianity  in 
the  East.  By  this  scheme  Germany  was  to  provide  half 
the  income,  the  grant  being  made  by  the  Crown  from 
official  sources,  and  England  the  other  half — the  English 
contributors  being  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christi- 
anity among  the  Jews,  and  private  subscribers.  In 
accordance  with  this  agreement  three  Bishops  had  been 
successively  appointed  by  alternate  nomination  of  Germany 
and  England.  Bishop  Barclay,  the  last  of  the  three,  died 
in  1 881.  By  this  time  the  combination  with  Germany 
was  felt  on  all  sides  to  be  impracticable,  and  the  complete 
lapse  of  the  whole  scheme  was  threatened. 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that  even  while  my  father 
was  still  at  Cambridge  he  mentioned  in  a  letter  to  Lightfoot 
(Jan.  22,  1849)  that  his  thoughts  had  been  turned  in  the 
direction  of  the  East  and  especially  of  the  Jerusalem 
Bishopric. 

And  further.  Archbishop  Tait,  when  he  was  dying, 
had,  as  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  tells  me,  committed  the 
future  of  this  Bishopric  in  an  especial  way  to  my  father's 
thoughts  and  endeavours. 

How  deeply  such  a  charge  would  move  him,  given 
from  the  deathbed  of  one  whom  he  so  loved  and  revered, — 
"  a   Prince  and   a  great  man,"  as  he  himself  wrote, — may 


1883-1884     THE   BISHOPRIC   OF  JERUSALEM  163 

well  be  imagined  ;  all  the  more  that  he  already  reached 
out,  not  only  with  practical  desires,  but  with  keen  historical 
imagination  towards  the  East. 

All  this  no  doubt  helped  him  when  he  felt  bound  to 
take,  as  Mr  Riley  says, 

A  very  decided  line,  unpopular  with  both  parties  in  the 
Church  for  opposite  reasons,  but  taken  in  steady  pursuit  of  his 
policy  towards  the  East. 

The  relations  with  Germany  were  not  definitely  brought 
to  a  close  until  some  time  after  Bishop  Barclay's  death, 
as  the  following  letter  and  an  extract  from  my  father's 
Diary  will  show  : — 

The  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia  (^Empress  Frederic)  to 
the  Archbishops  on  the  Jerusalem  Bishopric. 

Wiesbaden, 

Nov.  ibth,  1883. 

The  Crown  Princess  of  Germany  and  Prussia,  Princess  Royal, 
thanks  the  Archbishop  most  warmly  for  his  letter,  and  rejoices  to 
hear  he  has  recovered  from  his  late  indisposition. 

The  Crown  Princess  had  not  heard  the  name  of  Dr  Weitbrecht, 
nor  does  she  know  that  others  have  been  brought  forward  in 
connexion  with  the  Bishopric  of  Jerusalem.  The  Crown  Princess 
has  however  written  to  Berlin  to  the  Crown  Prince  and  quoted 
the  Archbishop's  words  on  this  subject,  in  which  she  knows  the 
Crown  Prince  takes  a  double  interest  ever  since  his  visit  to 
Jerusalem. 

Tact  and  ability  are  indeed  required  in  such  a  position,  which 
must  be  a  difficult  one. 

The  Archbishop  has  no  doubt  heard  from  his  Brother'  all 
about  the  Celebration  of  the  Luther  Centenary  and  its  great 
popularity  in  Germany.  A  whole  "Luther"  literature  has  sprung 
up,  and  many  an  interesting  halfforgotten  Historical  incident 
been  again  brought  to  light. 

July  igth,  1884.  The  Crown  Prince  Frederic  of  Germany 
said  he  was  innocent  of  the  delay  as  to  the  Jerusalem  Bishopric — 

'  Christopher  Benson  of  Wiesbaden. 

II  —  2 


i64  CANON   LIDDON  aet.  56 

would  do  his  best  to  remove  the  disgrace  of  two  years'  vacancy. 
I  said  "  The  Jerusalem  Bishop  had  been  of  little  use,  and 
never  would  be  if  they  were  to  appoint  people  who  could  not 
travel — the  main  use  of  a  Bishop  there  was  to  let  me  know  how 
we  stood  with  regard  to,  and  how  to  approach,  and  how  to  answer 
the  constant  letters  from  Oriental  Churches ;  a  young  and  active 
man  was  the  only  kind  of  man  from  whom  I  could  see  any  results 
attainable."  He  saw  this — said  so  far  there  had  been  no  gain  to 
either  Church,  and  that  as  for  the  production  of  a  spirit  of  unity, 
the  two  Churches  were  as  far  off  as  ever.  Which  is  true,  but  to 
suspend  or  alter  the  arrangement  now  would  be  an  active  touch 
of  alienation.     He  is  a  very  kingly  sort  of  person. 

Since  Newman's  time  High  Churchmen  had  viewed 
the  Anglican  Bishopric  of  Jerusalem  with  the  greatest 
dislike,  as,  on  the  one  hand,  an  intrusion  into  the  Orthodox 
Patriarchates,  and,  on  the  other,  a  compromising  alliance 
with  German  Protestantism.  Accordingly  when,  on  Bishop 
Barclay's  death,  it  became  clear  that  the  German  authori- 
ties were  disinclined  to  continue  the  original  plan.  High 
Churchmen  generally  were  of  opinion  that  it  would  be  a 
good  thing  to  allow  the  Bishopric  to  come  to  an  end. 
Definite  expression  was  given  to  this  opinion  by  Dr  Liddon, 
who,  on  his  return  from  the  East,  had  published  his 
impressions  of  the  situation.  He  bitterly  complained  of 
the  action  of  the  C.  M.  S.  missionaries,  alleging  that  under 
Bishop  Gobat  and  Bishop  Barclay  they  had  carried  on  an 
open  system  of  proselytism  from  the  Greek  Church  with 
which  it  was  obvious  they  were  entirely  out  of  sympathy. 
In  1886  Canon  Liddon  corresponded  with  the  Archbishop 
on  this  subject.     The  Archbishop  writes  in  his  Diary  : — 

He  (Liddon)  wrote  to  tell  me  that  the  Greek  Orthodox 
patriarch  was  very  strong  against  a  Jerusalem  Bishopric  of 
Anglican  Church.  The  Bishop  of  Gibraltar  says  that  this  is  not 
the  case.  That  the  Eastern  Bishops  generally  hold  Jerusalem  to 
be  a  natural  place  for  a  Bishop  to  reside  for  us  as  well  as  for  all 
other  Churches.     I  replied  that  the  German  Government  could 


i887  THE    "DEAD   SEE"  165 

not  at  present,  in  spite  of  all  my  efforts,  take  the  final  step  of 
severing  their  lot  from  ours  in  this  ill-compacted  Bishopric,  and 
that  till  they  had  done  so  I  could  not  tell  what  would  be  the 
actual  position  of  our  portion  of  the  endowment,  or  of  our  right 
to  appoint  a  Bishop.  He  writes  gratefully  back,  and  suggests 
that  when  the  time  comes,  we  should  pay  our  endowment  over  to 
the  Patriarch  to  enable  him  to  improve  his  printing  press,  from 
which  have  already  issued  some  creditable  looking  editions  of 
Fathers ;  this  would  just  help  him  with  his  next  enterprise — a 
Chrysostom.     Is  such  a  man  serious,  or  does  he  think  I  am? 

Early  in  the  next  year  he  wrote  again  : — 

Sundays  Feb.  bth.  Canon  Liddon  and  others  had  for  some 
time  past  been  moving  quietly  to  oppose  the  appointment  of 
another  Bishop  in  Jerusalem.  They  now  broke  out  into  the 
newspapers.  He  has  lost  much  by  adopting  newspaper  corre- 
spondence as  his  method  of  attack. 

He  wrote  to  me  congratulating  me  on  Secessions  to  Rome 
having  ceased  in  my  Archiepiscopate,  and  absurdly  attributing 
this  to  my  understood  Catholicity  in  this  and  other  things,  or 
meaning  me  to  understand  that  he  so  accounted  for  it,  and 
implying  that  they  would  begin  again  if  I  restored  the  Bishopric 
(of  Jerusalem). 

On  Feb.  i6th,  1887,  an  article  appeared  in  the  Guardian 
under  the  heading  of  "  The  Dead  See."  Two  days  later 
the  two  Archbishops  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  announced 
that  the  Bishopric  was  to  be  reconstituted.  The  announce- 
ment ran  as  follows  : — 

The  Prussian  Government  has  recently,  with  the  full  assent  of 
the  English  Trustees,  withdrawn  from  contributing  to  the  support 
of  an  Anglican  Bishop  having  his  headquarters  in  Jerusalem. 

The  English  fund  has  still  to  be  applied  to  those  necessary 
purposes  for  which  it  was  subscribed — each  of  them  more 
necessary  now  than  ever. 

1.  The  English  congregations  and  schools  in  Syria,  Egypt, 
Asia  Minor,  Cyprus,  and  the  region  of  the  Red  Sea,  have  greatly 
increased,  and  require  regular  Episcopal  oversight. 

2.  The  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  Jews,  Arabs,  and  other 


i66  BISHOPRIC   RECONSTITUTED  aet.  57 

non-Christian   inhabitants   of  those   countries  is  a  duty  of  the 
Church  which  much  needs  a  Bishop's  guidance. 

3.  It  was  an  object  with  the  founders  of  the  fund  to 
improve  our  relation  to  the  Orthodox  Churches  of  the  East. 

In  illustration  of  this,  Ch.  I.  Art.  VII.  of  the  Convention 
of  1 84 1,  and  the  commendatory  letters,  with  Archbishop 
Rowley's  letter  of  the  same  year  are  quoted  ;  and  the 
document  continues : — 

Thus  to  make  English  proselytes  of  the  members  of  those 
Churches,  to  make  it  the  worldly  interest  of  the  poor  to  attach 
themselves  to  us,  to  draw  away  children  against  the  wishes  of 
their  parents,  is  not  after  the  spirit  or  usage  of  this  foundation, 
although  the  liberty  of  enquiry  and  of  conviction  which  exists  in 
England  is  not  intended  to  be  diminished  there. 

The  English  Bishop  has  no  territorial  jurisdiction,  and  would 
be  improperly  called  "  Bishop  of  Jerusalem."  He  is  entrusted 
with  the  spiritual  oversight  of  the  Chaplains  and  other  ministers 
of  the  Church  of  England  in  Jerusalem  and  the  East. 

It  might,  however,  still  have  been  subject  to  doubt  whether, 
as  a  matter  of  comity  or  convenience,  he  should  reside  in 
Jerusalem  or  elsewhere,  although  religious  feeling  has  made  it 
customary  for  ages  that  Churches  of  both  East  and  West  should 
place  in  Jerusalem  the  residence  of  one  of  their  chief  officers,  and 
English  churchmen  fully  share  this  sentiment. 

But  the  attitude  and  distinct  judgment  of  the  present  Greek 
Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  leaves  this  no  matter  of  question.  His 
Holiness  has  not  only  on  various  occasions  expressed  himself 
warmly  towards  our  own  Church,  and  shown  our  clergy  particular 
marks  of  goodwill,  but  in  a  letter  lately  received  expressed  himself 
thus  on  the  subject  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  : — 

"  We  are  moved  by  fervent  desire  to  see  nearer  intercourse 
between  the  two  Churches ;  that  so  every  spiritual  assault  and 
activity  against  them  of  the  evil  one,  who  through  new  devices 
and  false  teachings  seeks  to  swallow  up  all  the  Holy  Churches, 
may  be  the  more  easily  and  effectively  baffled  and  rendered 
fruitless. 

"Accordingly,  as  we  have  formerly  stated  distinctly  in  conver- 
sation with  many  distinguished  Englishmen,  both  clergy  and  laity, 
we  consider  it  necessary  that  a  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  England, 


r887  BISHOP    BLYTH  167 

possessed  of  the  requisite  qualifications,  should  be  placed  in  this 
Holy  City  and  not  in  Beyrout,  assuring  you  that  we  shall  receive 
him  with  much  affection,  and  shall  with  all  our  power  assist  and 
support  him  in  all  his  efforts  and  transactions." 

It  remains  only  to  be  added  that  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  and  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christianity  among  the 
Jews  have  each  of  them  placed  ^300  a  year  at  the  disposal,  for 
this  purpose,  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  to  make  up  the  deficit  caused 
by  the  withdrawal  of  the  Prussian  fund,  and  make  the  income  of 
the  Bishop  up  to  _;^i2oo  a  year.  But  so  much  travelling  will 
now  be  required,  owing  to  the  increase  of  English  settlements, 
that  a  Bishop  ought  to  have  ^1500  a  year  at  least,  and  it  is 
confidently  hoped  that  the  Churchmen  of  England  will  not  shrink 
from  securing  this  amount  to  the  Bishop. 

The  Archbishop  was  at  the  same  time  anxious  privately 
to  set  at  rest  fears  on  the  subject ;  in  a  letter  to  Mr  Riley 
he  says : — 

It  should  be  pointed  out  that  Archbishop  Howley's  provisions 
broke  down  through  the  German  alliance — because  of  their 
appointment  of  a  Bishop  who  violated  the  provisions \ 

This  is  entirely  removed  now. 

The  interval  of  five  years  will  be  a  great  help  in  its  way. 

On  March  2nd  the  appointment  of  the  Venerable 
G.  F.  Popham  Blyth,  late  Archdeacon  of  Rangoon,  was 
announced.     Mr  Riley  adds  : — 

The  High  Church  party  was  thrown  into  consternation  on 
finding  the  reconstitution  of  the  Bishopric  thus  an  established 
fact,  and  Liddon,  who  felt  the  matter  very  keenly,  took  an  active 
part  in  the  preparation  of  a  formal  address  to  the  Primate  on  the 
subject.  That  Liddon  thoroughly  mistrusted  the  Archbishop  I 
am  certain,  and  the  Archbishop  reciprocated  the  want  of  con- 
fidence. Both  had  the  same  object  in  view,  the  removal  of  the 
scandals  in  Palestine,  and  the  promotion  of  good  relations  with 
the  Patriarchs,  tempered,  in  the  Primate's  case,  by  the  conviction, 
always  present  with  him,  that  it  was  his  mission  to  keep  the  peace 
at  home ;  but  their  methods  were  essentially  different. 

1  Bishop  Gobat  who  held  the  See  from  1846  to  1879. 


i68  LIDDON'S   MEMORIAL  aet.  s7 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  two  men  were  by  nature 
essentially  dissimilar.  To  the  eager  practical  temperament 
of  the  Archbishop  the  subtle  metaphysical  element  in 
Canon  Liddon's  mind  was  wholly  antagonistic  ;  while  to 
Liddon,  who  had  welcomed  the  appointment  of  a  decided 
High  Churchman  to  the  Primacy,  it  was  no  doubt  a 
peculiar  disappointment  to  find  the  new  Archbishop  in- 
stinctively opposed  to  the  principles  of  the  extreme  High 
Church  section,  and  preserving  a  scrupulous  fairness  and 
openness  towards  the  representatives  of  all  shades  of 
opinion  in  the  Church.  In  <"his  case,  on  the  one  side 
Liddon  was  persuaded  that  the  Archbishop  had  yielded 
the  position  to  "  the  Puritans."  On  the  other  side,  though 
the  Archbishop  showed  great  anxiety  to  quiet  conscientious 
scruples,  he  could  not  stand  at  the  bar  of  a  party  in  the 
Church.  The  two  subscribing  societies  had  put  the  funds 
in  a  most  generous  way  unconditionally  at  the  disposal  of 
the  three  prelates,  "  relying  on  their  wisdom."  What  he 
desired  was  that  the  High  Church  party  should  show  the 
same  confidence.  His  principles  of  action  were  already 
known  and  did  not  lack  expression  in  the  appeal  already 
put  forth. 

Mr  Riley  conveyed  to  the  Archbishop  the  intention, 
and  the  scruples  of  the  party  which  Canon  Liddon  repre- 
sented, and  received  from  him  the  following  letter : — 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

March  2,rd,   1887. 
My  dear  Riley, 

Thank  you  very  much. 

A  Memorial  would  not  strengthen  my  hands.  It  would  make 
things  very  difficult.  Things  will  now  go  forward,  and  while  the 
"  policy  "  is  thought  and  known  to  be  my  own  I  can  carry  it  on — 
no  one  would  expect  me  to  do  anything  else. 

But  a  Memorial  would  set  people  all  watching  to  see  whether 
I  was  being  "  managed  "  and  things  really  mine  would  be  at  once 


i887  THE    PRIMATE'S    POLICY  169 

declared  to  be  dictated.  But  all  this  would  go,  and  hostility 
awake,  and  efforts  be  made  in  all  directions,  if  I  am  supposed  to 
be  influenced.  The  true  Memorial  which  they  can  make  for  me 
is  before  God.     I  trust  they  do.     He  will  guide. 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

Mr  Riley  continues  : — 

The  Archbishop  further  made  me  draw  up  a  memorandum, 
part  of  which  he  dictated,  on  his  policy  in  Palestine  and  the 
attitude  he  had  sketched  out  for  the  new  "  Bishop  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  Jerusalem."  By  his  directions  the  memorandum 
was  submitted  to  several  prominent  High  Church  leaders,  and  it 
had  considerable  eff"ect.  It  was  too  late,  however,  to  prevent  the 
publication  of  the  address,  as  the  Archbishop  desired,  and  that 
document  was  presented  in  the  course  of  the  month. 

This  address,  signed,  amongst  other  influential  persons,  by 
thirteen  deans,  including  Dean  Church  of  St  Paul's,  six  Heads  of 
Houses,  including  the  Warden  of  Keble'  and  Lord  Selborne, 
expressed  grave  anxiety  in  that  the  C.  M.  S.  was  to  contribute 
towards  the  Bishopric,  although  the  memorialists  went  so  far  as  to 
say,  "  We  do  not  venture  on  the  present  occasion  to  express  any 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  decision  to  appoint  a  Bishop  for  this 
position.  We  are  sincerely  grateful  that  we  can  trace,  in  the 
deference  expressed  to  the  wish  of  the  Patriarch,  the  same 
principles  of  action  in  regard  to  the  Eastern  Church  which  have 
been  defined  by  your  Grace  in  respect  to  the  Mission  to  the 
Assyrian  Churches." 

These  reflections  do  not  however  appear  to  have 
reassured  the  memorialists  as  much  as  might  have  been 
desired,  for  they  concluded  by  asking  that  two  conditions 
might  definitely  be  stated  : — 

1.  That  the  Patriarch  be  informed  that  the  new 
Bishop's  authority  would  be  used  to  check  proselytism. 

2.  That  each  appointment  to  the  Bishopric  should  be 
conditional  on  the  continued  approval  of  the  Orthodox 
See. 

^  Edward  Talbot,  now  Bishop  of  Rochester. 


I70  REPLY   TO   THE    MEMORIAL  aet.  57 

The  publication  of  this  address,  or  protest,  based,  as 
the  Archbishop  considered,  on  utterly  insufficient  know- 
ledge of  the  facts,  and  signed  by  some  of  his  own  best 
friends,  who  might  easily  have  obtained  better  and  more 
direct  information,  gave  rise  in  his  mind,  as  his  private 
letters  show,  to  feelings  of  great  vexation.  He  wrote  how- 
ever, on  March  19th,  a  perfectly  temperate  reply,  addressed 
to  the  Warden  of  Keble  (Talbot),  who  was  one  of  his 
own  Examining  Chaplains.     In  the  course  of  it  he  said  : — 

Such  a  memorial  as  you  sent  me  will  of  necessity  attract 
attention,  and  may  evoke  various  expressions  of  opinion,  but 
none,  I  think,  very  discrepant  with  what  is  arranged. 

In  the  case  of  our  Mission  to  the  Assyrian  Christians,  I  have 
some  time  since,  as  you  are  aware,  stated  simply  the  principles 
on  which  our  work  in  relation  to  Christian  Churches  should  be 
carried  on  in  the  East.  Their  authorities  have  cordially  acknow- 
ledged these  intentions,  and  they  will  not  be  departed  from. 

I  do  not  share  the  fears  of  the  memorialists  with  regard  to 
the  work  of  the  great  Society  which  they  mention.  Perhaps 
acquaintance  with  details  impossible  to  set  out  at  length  gives  me 
this  confidence.  But  I  venture  to  believe  it  to  be  well  grounded. 
The  policy  of  such  a  society  may  fairly  claim  to  be  measured  by 
what  is  really  its  own  action  and  utterance,  and  not  by  scattered 
sentences  drawn  from  the  correspondence  of  one  or  two  local 
agents,  English  or  native.  It  must  be  considered,  too,  that  the 
agents  themselves  have  been  compelled  for  some  years  past  to 
work  without  central  Episcopal  guidance,  and  their  position  has 
been  one  of  the  strongest  motives  which  lead  the  Society  to 
desire  that  the  Church  shall  provide  such  superintendence  and  to 
contribute  so  generously  to  the  fund  which,  by  its  primary  consti- 
tution, is  in  the  absolute  management  of  the  two  Archbishops  and 
the  Bishop  of  London.  Anxiety  that  the  work  in  Palestine  shall 
be  conducted  in  co-operation  with  the  Patriarchs  and  Clergy  of 
the  Orthodox  Churches  of  the  East  dates,  however,  from  the 
beginning  of  that  work. 

Bishop  Blyth  was  consecrated  on  Lady  Day  in  the 
Chapel  at  Lambeth,  and  went  out  commended  to  the 
Patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  Jerusalem  and  Antioch, 


i887  LETTERS   TO   THE    PATRIARCHS  171 

To  "  Dionysius,  the  Most  Holy  Archbishop  of  Con- 
stantinople, New  Rome,  and  Oecumenical  Patriarch,"  the 
Archbishop  wrote  : — 

We  desire  in  the  first  place  to  express  to  Your  Holiness, 
highly  esteemed  by  us  in  Christ,  our  fraternal  congratulations 
upon  your  elevation  to  the  Throne  of  the  Oecumenical  Patriarchate, 
beseeching  God  the  Father  by  the  Mercy  of  Christ  to  endow 
Your  Holiness  with  all  the  Graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  you 
may  be  a  worthy  Successor  of  our  Fathers  amongst  the  Saints, 
Gregory  the  Theologian  and  John  the  Golden-mouthed,  for  the 
feeding  of  the  national  flock  of  Christ  committed  to  your  care. 

And  now  we  would  inform  you,  dearly-beloved  Brother  in  the 
Lord,  as  we  are  in  love  and  duty  bound,  that  having  received  the 
assent  and  consent  thereto  of  His  Holiness  Nicodemus,  Patriarch 
of  the  Holy  City  Jerusalem,  made  known  to  us  in  a  letter  full  of 
Charity  and  Zeal  and  Power  addressed  to  our  Humility  by  this  our 
Brother  in  the  Rule  of  the  Church  of  God,  we  resolved,  after  due 
consultation  and  many  prayers,  to  send  forth  to  reside  within  His 
Holiness'  Patriarchate  and  Diocese  a  Bishop  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  take  and  have  the  charge  and  oversight  of  the  English 
Clergy  and  Congregations  scattered  throughout  Palestine,  Syria, 
parts  of  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt,  as  also  in  the  Island  of  Cyprus 
and  in  the  regions  about  the  Red  Sea. 

Then  follows  a  careful  account  of  the  consecration  of 
Bishop  Blyth  "  by  the  Holy  and  Apostolic  Rite  of  the 
imposition  of  hands,  according  to  the  due  order  of  this 
Realm,"  and  the  Bishop  is  commended  as: — 

A  man  known  in  all  our  Churches  for  the  integrity  of  his  life 
and  conversation,  his  proficiency  in  Divine  knowledge,  the  dis- 
cretion of  his  judgment,  the  lovingness  of  his  spirit,  and  the 
assiduity  of  his  labours  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

It  will  be  the  desire  and  study  of  this  our  Brother,  beloved 
in  the  Lord,  in  the  first  place  to  give  hving  tokens  by  his  conduct 
and  conversation  of  that  fraternal  desire  for  union  between  the 
Orthodox  Church  of  the  East  and  the  Church  of  England  (mind- 
ful of  Him  Who  maketh  men  to  be  of  one  mind  in  an  house), 
which  many  faithful  members  in  both  Churches  have  so  often 


172  LETTERS   TO   THE    PATRIARCHS       aet.  57 

spoken  of  with  yearning  hearts,  7r6ppw6ev  iSovre?  koI  ao-n-txa^afxevoi^, 
and,  secondly  to  afford,  in  requital  of  the  kindness  promised  to 
us,  so  far  as  in  him  and  in  us  lies,  whatever  help  and  support  we 
may  against  encroaching  Churches  and  aggressive  organizations 
which  under  many  names  seek,  some  to  swallow  up  and  some  to 
rend  asunder  the  Flock — rrjv  jxiav  ttolixvtjv  tov  kuXov  Troi/Aevos^. 
We  ourselves  and  the  good  Bishop  alike,  who  is  the  Repre- 
sentative within  the  Patriarchate  of  Jerusalem  of  ourselves  and 
of  our  Church,  as  also  in  the  Dioceses  of  other  Bishops  in  which 
he  will  visit  our  own  people,  will  steadily  reprove  and  discoun- 
tenance all  attempt  at  proselytism  from  the  Orthodox  Churches 
of  the  East. 

Moreover  we  desire  to  communicate  to  Your  Holiness  that 
we  have  given  to  this  our  Brother  a  Charge,  which  he  was 
himself  forward  to  request  should  be  laid  down  by  authority,  not 
to  use  any  style  or  title  of  Bishop  of  Jerusalem  or  any  insignia 
denoting  territorial  jurisdiction  or  authority  in  the  East  nor  to 
employ  any  signature  save  his  Christian  name  and  patronymic 
with  the  designation  of  "Bishop"  in  addition,  as  having  been 
admitted  to  that  Holy  Office  which  whoso  exercises  must  be  the 
servant  of  all. 

Praying  earnestly  for  the  unity  of  all  men  in  the  Blessed 
Faith  of  the  primitive  Oecumenical  Councils  of  the  Undivided 
Church  of  Christ  and  in  the  living  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 

We  ever  remain, 

Of  Your  Reverend  Holiness,  much  esteemed  by 
us,  the  most  faithful  and  devoted  servant 
and  brother  in  Christ, 

(signed)  Edw.  Cantuar. 

Given  at  our  Palace  of  Lambeth  in 
London  and  sealed  with  our  Archie- 
piscopal  Seal  on  the  Festival  of  the 
Annunciation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
Mary,  in  the  year  of  our  Salvation 
1887. 

To  "  the  Most  Holy  Patriarch  of  the  Holy  City  of 
Jerusalem  and  all  Palestine,  Syria,  Arabia  beyond  Jordan, 

^  Having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  welcomed  them.     Heb.  xi.  13. 
*  The  one  flock  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 


i887  LETTERS   TO   THE    PATRIARCHS  173 

Cana  in  Galilee,  and  Holy  Sion,  Nicodemus,"  the  Arch- 
bishop wrote,  giving  the  same  assurances  with  regard  to 
proselytising,  in  answer  to  a  communication  from  him : — 

Your  Holiness... which  is  full  of  Charity  and  Zeal  and  Power, 
informing  our  Humility  of  your  desire  that  a  Bishop  of  the 
Church  of  England  should  take  up  his  abode  in  your  Holy  City 
and  See  and  not  in  Beyrout, 

and  announcing  in  similar  form  the  coming  of  the  Bishop  : — 

We  acknowledge  with  unfeigned  thanks  Your  Holiness'  cordial 
assurance  "that  you  will  receive  him  with  much  love,  and  with 
all  your  power  will  assist  and  support  him  in  all  his  exertions 
and  actions."  He  will  on  our  part  afford  to  Your  Holiness  what 
you  desire  of  us,  namely,  whatever  help  or  support  we  are 
capable  of  giving  against  encroaching  Churches  or  other  aggressive 
organizations  whose  purpose  is  to  rend  asunder  and  devour  the 
Flock. . . . 

We  rejoice  to  hear  of  the  many  schools  which  Your  Holiness 
is  founding  and  hopes  to  found  for  the  Christian  children  of  your 
villages  and  hamlets,  for  their  confirmation  in  the  Faith,  that  they 
may  stand  fast  and  hold  the  same,  according  to  that  Scripture 
which  saith  dS^Xcjioi,  crrrJKeTe  /cat  Kparelre  m?  TrapaSo'crets  as  eStSa^- 
OrjTe^  (2  Thes.  ii.   15).... 

We  cannot  conclude  our  Letter  without  expressing  to  Your 
Blessedness  our  joyfulness  of  heart  and  gladness  of  spirit  at  the 
paternal  reception  accorded  by  Your  Holiness  to  those  Priests  of 
our  Church  who,  by  the  permission  of  Your  Reverend  Holiness, 
have  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  celebrating  the  Divine  Mysteries 
within  the  venerable  walls  of  the  great  Central  Church  of 
Christendom,  and  to  those  of  our  people  who,  constrained  by 
the  love  of  Christ,  have  sought  to  tread  those  places  hallowed  by 
His  Sacred  footsteps,  and  prompted  by  a  spirit  of  devotion  to 
worship  Him  where  by  His  Saving  Passion  He  redeemed  the 
world. 

The  third  letter  is  addressed  to  "  Gerasimus,  the  Most 
Blessed  and  Holy  Patriarch  of  the  Divine  City  Antioch, 
Syria,  Arabia,   Cilicia,   Iberia,   Mesopotamia,   and    all    the 

^  Brethren,  stand  fast  and  hold  the  traditions  which  ye  have  been  taught. 


174  WELCOME   OF   BISHOP   BLYTH  aet.  57 

East,  Father  of  Fathers,  Pastor  of  Pastors,"  and  is  written 
on  the  same  lines. 

Bishop  Blyth  was  warmly  received  both  by  the  Church 
and  by  the  Turkish  authorities  on  his  arrival. 

The  Oecumenical  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  wrote  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  on  April  30th,  1 887,  saying  :— 

Since  Your  Reverence,  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love  and  for 
the  confirmation  of  the  good  relations  which,  from  long  past,  bind 
together  by  the  grace  of  God,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Anglican 
Church  with  our  own,  further  adds  that  the  said  Bishop  will 
make  it  a  first  care  to  express,  both  in  his  life  and  work,  the 
desire  which  fills  the  hearts  of  many  excellent  members  of  both 
the  Churches,  to  see  them  fraternally  joined  in  the  unity  of  the 
Faith,  and  that  he  will  disapprove  of  all  endeavour  after  prosely- 
tising in  the  Orthodox  Church  of  the  East,  we  joyfully  receive 
these  good  assurances  dictated  by  the  true  spirit  of  the  Christian 
faith. ...  Wherefore  also  we  now  warmly  receive  the  request  of 
Your  Reverence  and... we  hasten  to  commend  the  aforesaid 
Anglican  Bishop  to  the  Most  Blessed  and  Holy  Patriarch  of 
Jerusalem,  the  Lord  Nicodemus. 

And  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  wrote  to  Dean 
Hale  on  May  20th  of  the  same  year,  saying  of  Bishop 
Blyth  :— 

We  have  received  him  with  all  love  commending  him  to  our 
Metropolitan  and  representatives  elsewhere, 
and  expressing  his  hope  that  "  the  good  judgement,  pru- 
dence, and  many  virtues  of  the  Bishop  shown  during  our 
brief  intercourse "  would  put  a  stop  to  the  proselytising 
evils  which  are  "  not  harmonious  with  our  desire  to 
continue  always  in  love  and  peace  with  the  Anglican 
Church." 

But  a  new  difficulty  had  arisen.  Mr  Riley  writes  : — 
By  this  time  the  Low  Churchmen  had  discovered  that  the 
new  Bishop  was  likely  to  be  opposed  to  their  methods  in  Palestine 
and  it  was  their  turn  to  protest.  Grave  objections  to  contributing 
towards  the  Bishop's  salary  were  raised  in  the  C.  M.  S.  and  the 
Record  suggested  that  Dr  Blyth  should  resign. 


i887  PACIFICATION  175 

But  again  the  difficulties  were  for  the  time  cleared 
away,  and  the  Archbishop  writing  about  this  to  Mr  Riley 
(June   14th,   1887)  says: — 

In  all  gravity  and  affection  pray  for  God's  present  guidance 
in  His  Church — He  is  leading  us  on  and  "  the  way  of  the  Kings 
of  the  East  is  being  prepared." 

There  were  many  complicated  and  delicate  problems  to 
face  ;  in  later  years  again  the  clouds  rolled  up,  and  in  1891 
at  the  request  of  the  Lower  House  of  Convocation,  referred 
again  from  the  Bishops  to  the  Archbishop,  the  latter,  with 
the  Bishops  of  London,  Winchester  and  Durham,  whom  he 
asked  to  assist  him,  made  an  enquiry  into  difficulties  that 
had  arisen  between  the  English  Bishop  in  Jerusalem  and 
the  Church  Missionary  Society. 

But,  as  Mr  Riley  adds  : — 

To  discuss  further  the  history  of  the  revived  Jerusalem 
Bishopric  and  in  the  light  of  the  past  eleven  years  to  judge 
between  the  course  advocated  by  Liddon  and  that  adopted  by  the 
Archbishop,  would  be  to  touch  too  closely  on  controversies  not 
yet  closed.  But  this  much  may  be  said,  that  the  uniform  policy 
of  Archbishop  Benson  towards  the  Eastern  Churches  has  been 
maintained  in  Jerusalem  by  the  Bishop  who,  to  use  the  Arch- 
bishop's words,  was  his  "Vicar  or  Representative,"  and  by  the 
clergy  whom  that  prelate  has  attracted  to  assist  him  in  a  position 
of  no  small  difficulty. 

Indeed  it  would  not  be  too  much  to  go  further  and  say 
that  few  if  any  of  those  who  distrusted  the  Archbishop's 
principles  or  his  power  to  bring  about  what  he  desired 
have  not  come  to  trust  the  line  which  he  carried  through 
firmly  and  independently,  against  many-sided  opposition, 
yet  not  without  regard  to  reverent  scruples  and  conscien- 
tious fears. 

If  the  above  episode  shows  the  Archbishop's  line  of 
policy  in  a  question  affecting  an  Oriental  Church,  and  his 
handling  of  a  scheme  which  he    did    not   originate,  and 


176  THE   ASSYRIAN   CHRISTIANS  aet.  54 

which  was  attended  by  bitter  opposition  and  circumstances 
of  unexampled  difficulty,  it  is  as  well  to  put  side  by  side 
with  it  a  movement  which,  though  he  did  not  originate  it, 
he  practically  reorganised,  and  carried  through  without 
opposition,  entirely  on  lines  suggested  and  laid  down  by 
himself. 

The  Assyrian,  or  East  Syrian  Christians  represent  the 
Church  of  the  old  Persian  Empire,  whose  Bishops  were 
originally  dependent  on  Antioch,  and  whose  headquarters 
were  at  Seleucia  (Ctesiphon)  on  the  Tigris. 

The  origin  of  the  Church  is  uncertain.  East  Syrian 
traditions  attribute  its  foundation  to  two  of  the  disciples 
of  St  Thomas  the  Apostle.  These  were  St  Mari,  their 
first  Bishop,  and  St  Addai,  whose  names  are  coupled  in 
the  title  of  their  liturgy,  the  latter,  so  tradition  has  it,  being 
one  of  the  seventy  sent  out  by  our  Lord  himself 

The  East  Syrians  became  from  the  sixth  to  the  four- 
teenth century  not  only  a  great  Missionary  Church,  but  a 
learned  Church.  Among  their  daughter  Churches  we  must 
probably  count  the  Christians  of  St  Thomas  on  the  Malabar 
coast  of  India.  A  stone  found  in  China  records  the  coming 
of  their  missionaries;  Huns,  Tartars  and  Bactrians  heard 
their  teaching  ;  their  schools  flourished  at  Bagdad,  Edessa 
and  Nisibis. 

But  in  the  fourteenth  century  they  moved  northwards, 
under  the  pressure  of  persecution  and  the  fury  of  Tamerlane, 
until  they  took  refuge  in  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan  and 
the  plains  of  North- Western  Persia,  where  they  now  live. 

Thus  the  Assyrian  Christians  are  subjects  of  both 
Turkey  and  Persia.  In  both  countries  they  are  surrounded 
by  Mahomedans;  but  in  Persia,  in  spite  of  oppressive 
laws,  in  spite  of  the  difficulty  a  Christian  has  in  obtaining 
justice,  their  lot  is  not  intolerable.  Christians  are  exempt 
from  military  service,  being  subject  instead  to  a  poll-tax  : 


i884  NESTORIANISM  177 

the  tax-collector  of  a  Christian  village  is  a  Christian, 
ranking  next  in  honour  to  the  parish  priest ;  and  the 
conditions  of  life  of  even  the  poor  of  Persia  is  in  some 
respects  prosperous. 

It  is  in  the  open  mountainous  districts  of  Turkey  that 
the  Christians  are  said  "  to  exist  rather  than  live."  Those 
who,  though  under  Turkish  rule,  inhabit  the  narrow  valleys 
of  the  Kurdistan  mountains,  preserve  a  certain  measure 
of  tribal  independence,  and  being  rough  and  savage  can 
to  some  extent  protect  themselves  against  the  savagery 
of  the  Kurds.  But  the  non-tribal  Assyrians  are,  as  it 
were,  between  the  upper  and  nether  mill-stone,  ground 
down  under  Turkish  rule ;  exposed  to  the  raids  of  the 
Kurds  against  whom  even  their  rulers  cannot  protect 
them. 

As  to  their  doctrinal  position,  though  loosely  called 
"Nestorians"  it  is  a  moot  point  how  far  they  are  "Nes- 
torians"  in  the  European  sense  of  the  word.  My  father 
more  than  once  expressed  his  opinion  that  the  heresy  of 
Nestorius  was  to  a  great  extent  a  question  of  language, 
and  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  the  Assyrian  Christians, 
or  even  Nestorius  himself,  ever  professed  what  is  now 
meant  by  "  Nestorianism."  Whether  there  was  even  a 
strong  leaven  of  heresy  among  the  Eastern  Syrians  is  to 
be  doubted,  and  most  of  their  liturgical  work  is  not 
only  orthodox  but  in  a  great  measure  absolutely  contra- 
dictory of  "  Nestorianism."  On  the  other  hand,  though 
Nestorius,  who  was  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  had  no 
personal  connection  with  the  Eastern  Syrians,  it  is  a 
matter  of  history  that  they  espoused  his  cause,  holding 
that  he  had  been  unfairly  condemned  by  the  Council 
of  Ephesus,  and  were  on  this  account  cut  off  from 
Communion  with  Catholic  Christendom.  They  use  also 
some    very    ambiguous    if   not    unorthodox    technical    ex- 

B.  II.  12 


178  MAR   SHIMUN  aet.  54 

pressions  about  the  Incarnation,  and  the  language  of  some 
of  their  individual  fathers  is  undoubtedly  heretical. 

The  supreme  ruler  of  the  Assyrian  Christians  is  Mar 
Shimun,  their  hereditary  Patriarch.  Since  the  fifteenth 
century  the  Patriarchate  has  been  in  the  Shimun  family, 
for  though  the  Bishops  of  the  Church  are  themselves 
unmarried,  the  Episcopate  goes  with  certain  families,  and 
Bishops  are  destined  to  their  office  from  boyhood. 

Obscure  and  down-trodden  as  the  Church  now  seems, 
Mar  Shimun,  in  the  little  village  of  Qudshanis,  "  on  the 
banks  of  the  Pison,  the  river  of  Eden,"  ranked  in  virtue 
of  his  office  as  "  Catholicos  of  the  East"  next  to  the  five 
great  Patriarchs  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

Thus  under  diverse  and  alien  rule,  exposed  to  attack 
from  fellow-subjects,  benumbed  by  sordid  poverty  and 
ignorance,  its  learning  dead,  its  activities  shrunken,  the 
Assyrian  Church  is  yet  alive. 

Much  will  have  been  said  in  vain  if  it  is  not  clear  that 
the  condition  of  such  a  Church,  helplessly  faithful,  would 
appeal  to  my  father.  His  strong  historical  sense,  all  his 
aesthetic  admiration  for  Eastern  ecclesiasticism  and  sym- 
bolism, his  strong  admiration  for  the  estate  from  which  it 
had  fallen,  would  serve  to  strengthen  his  compassion  for 
the  human  weakness,  his  reverence  for  the  divine  life  in 
the  fallen  Church.  The  Assyrians  appealed  to  him  for  help 
to  preserve  their  existence  as  a  national  Church — he  was 
eager  to  meet  them,  and,  in  the  words  he  chose  himself  as 
a  motto  for  the  office,  to  "  Build  the  old  wastes  and  raise 
up  the  foundations  of  many  generations." 

Such  aid  as  was  demanded  my  father  always  felt  it 
was  especially  the  mission  of  the  English  Church  to  give. 

In  his  primary  Charge,  TJie  Seven  Gifts ^  he  says  : — 

On  the  contrary'  this  Church  of  ours  has  long  owned  the 
'  In  contradistinction,  that  is,  to  the  "Mission  of  Absorption. " 


[1778-1843]  MISSIONS   TO   ASSYRIA  179 

vocation,  though  she  has  been  feeble  and  intermittent  in  her 
efforts,  to  maintain  the  energies  of  the  more  failing  Churches 
of  the  East,  and  quietly  to  aid  their  own  yearnings  after  more 
light,  and  restored  discipline'. 

And  again  : — 

To  understand  and  educate  such  communities  and  preserve 
their  primitive  independence  inviolate  would  seem  to  be  the  very 
office  of  the  English  Church  above  all  others^. 

It  was  not  the  first  time  the  Assyrian  Church  had 
appealed,  but  it  was  the  first  time  they  had  met  with  so 
full  a  response. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  there  had  been  a  schism  in  the 
Assyrian  Church  in  Turkey  under  an  Anti-Patriarch  at 
Mosul.  In  1778  the  sect  then  formed  won  a  certain 
measure  of  support  by  a  submission  to  Rome,  and  became 
the  Chaldean  Uniat  Church.  Fifty  years  ago  a  Presbyterian 
Mission  was  established  in  Persia,  and  later  a  Latin  Mission  ; 
but  the  aim  of  these  was  not  to  instruct,  support  and  revivify 
the  Assyrian  Church,  but  to  proselytise.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  temptation  to  yield  to  proselytism  is  great  when  one 
remembers  that  any  connection  with  Europeans  serves  in  a 
measure  to  protect  from  Mahomedan  oppression.  It  was 
when  threatened  on  the  one  side,  persuaded  on  the  other, 
that  the  Assyrian  Church  appealed  to  England. 

The  first  appeal  under  pressure  of  persecution  had 
come  in  1837.  Dr  Badger  was  sent  out — his  presence  for 
the  time  served  to  protect,  but  in  1843  he  was  withdrawn. 

A  piteous  letter  followed  : — 

My  people  have  fallen  into  the  hand  of  the  enemy  and  there 
was  none  to  help  them ;  the  enemy  saw  them  and  laughed  at 
their  calamity.  They  pursued  us  in  the  mountains  and  in  the 
wilderness  did  they  lay  wait  for  us. ...But  because  that  God  is 
plenteous  in  compassion  and  merciful... He  so  ordered  it  that 

^    The  Seven  Gifts,  p.  214. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  216. 


i8o  APPEALS   TO   CANTERBURY  aet.  55 

the  presbyter  George  Badger  and  his  colleagues  should  be  in 
these  parts  to  gather  together  such  as  had  escaped  the  edge  of  the 
sword  and  to  provide  them  with  food  and  clothing.  But  now  our 
calamity  has  increased,  and  the  trouble  of  our  heart  has  been 
doubled,  since  we  heard  that  the  brethren  are  thinking  to  recall 
the  presbyter  George  Badger  to  your  country. ...Is  it  not  a  small 
matter  to  such  a  nation  to  give  one  person  to  those  who  are  in 
such  need  of  his  assistance  ? 

In  1868  another  appeal  was  made  to  Archbishop  Tait 
in  a  letter  written  by  three  Assyrian  Bishops,  thirty-two 
priests  and  eleven  deacons  : — 

We  implore  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  cast  ourselves  at  your 
feet  who  are  His  disciples,  beseeching  you  to  compassionate  the 
condition  of  our  people  who  are  wandering  over  our  mountains 
like  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  and  send  us  some  of  your  mis- 
sionaries and  preachers  to  guide  us  in  the  way  of  life ;  for  verily 
we  have  all  gone  astray,  each  one  following  his  own  devices 
through  our  utter  lack  of  pastors,  instructors  and  counsellors... 
We  are  persecuted  and  have  cried  aloud  for  help,  but  no  one  has 
come  to  comfort  us. 

Archbishop  Tait,  in  response  to  these  applications  from 
the  East  Syrians,  sent  out  first  the  Rev.  E.  L.  Cutts  in 
1876  to  report  to  him,  and  then  in  1881  the  Rev.  R.  Wahl, 
who  established  himself  for  a  time  in  Kurdistan  and  later  at 
Urmi.  In  consequence  of  his  not  being  a  British  subject, 
and  for  other  reasons,  difficulties  arose,  and  Archbishop 
Benson  asked  Mr  Athelstan  Riley  to  undertake  a  journey 
of  investigation  in  the  autumn  of  1884. 

Mr  Riley's  experience  confirmed  all  that  has  been  said 
— that  in  the  midst  of  poverty  and  ignorance,  with  tempta- 
tion to  apostasy,  with  inducements  to  become  proselytes  of 
other  Churches,  the  Assyrian  Christians  showed  a  desperate 
faithfulness  to  the  ancient  Church  of  their  nation  : — 

It  was  found  that  the  people  of  a  remote  village  in  the  midst 
of  Mahomedans,  were  unable  to  speak  their  native  Syriac. ...Yet 
each  Sunday  the  priest  summoned  his  flock  to  the  little  mud- 


1884-1885         CONDITIONS    INVESTIGATED  181 

built  Church.  He  could  indeed  read  the  Syriac  Service-books, 
but  did  not  properly  understand  them,  and  many  of  his  congrega- 
tion could  not  comprehend  a  word,  but  at  intervals  they  would 
respond  by  ejaculating  the  Turkish  words  "  Ya  Allah  "  (O  God)\ 

And  again  Mr  Riley  says  of  the  non-tribal  Assyrians: — 

They  are  taxed  up  to  starvation  point ;  their  houses  are  hardly 
fit  for  human  habitation ;  men,  women  and  children  go  about 
scarcely  covered  from  the  winter's  cold  by  a  few  rags ;  and  yet 
apostasy  from  Christianity,  which  would  bring  them  instantaneous 
relief  from  their  sufferings,  is  almost  unknown. 

I  know  no  more  touching  sight  than  the  interior  of  one  of 
their  poor  Churches ;  the  old  priest  clothed  in  a  vestment  of  the 
meanest  material,  speaking  hesitatingly  the  prayers  that  have 
come  down   from  the  cradle  of  Christianity,  the  poor  villagers 

pressing  forward   to  kiss  a  little  common  wooden  cross The 

monotonous  chanting  of  the  congregation  conducted  in  low 
murmurs  as  if  they  were  afraid  of  being  heard  outside ^ 

Such  appeals  coming  from  a  Church  humbled,  op- 
pressed, almost  despairing,  "  a  broken  Church,  a  temple  in 
the  dust,"  as  he  said,  affected  my  father  profoundly. 

Mr  Wahl  was  recalled  in  1885,  and  the  Archbishop 
determined  to  re-found  the  Mission  on  a  permanent  basis  ; 
in  the  following  year  he  sent  out  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Browne 
and  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Maclean  (Canon  of  Cumbrae,  and  on  his 
return  from  the  Mission  field,  Dean  of  Argyll  and  the  Isles) 
to  organise  a  regular  system  of  schools.  As  soon  as  the 
Archbishop  had  ascertained  that  Mr  Maclean  was  willing 
to  undertake  the  work  of  the  Mission,  he  wrote  him  the 
following  letter  of  practical  counsel : — 

Lambeth  Palace. 

July  20,  1885. 
My  dear  Canon  Maclean, 

It  is  most  opposed  to  my  idea  of  how  the  Mission 
ought  to  be  worked  that  it  should  be  looked  on  as  calling  for 

^  Annual  Report,  1898,  pp.  12,  13. 

^  Report  on  the  foundation  of  the  Archbishop's  Mission  to  the  Assyrian 
Church  in  1886,  by  Athelstan  Riley,  M.A.,  p.    11. 


i82  MISSIONERS   SENT   OUT  aet.  56 

rough  life,  hard  riding  and  the  like.  A  Missioner  over-wrought, 
and  not  taking  care  of  his  health,  strained  and  nervous,  is  I  think 
even  in  England,  a  useless  Missioner.  I  believe  that  a  life  of 
fierce  battling  A\ith  elements  will  not  be  the  way  to  restore  the 
Nestorian  Church — you  want  to  promote  study,  and  to  do  some 
quiet  teaching.  As  regards  the  journey  thither  I  think  it  ought 
to  be  done  in  the  quietest  way  possible.  Their  Clergy  will  never 
be  taught  and  fitted  to  teach  unless  there  is  first  a  peaceful 
training  of  them. 

We  are  in  the  Hands  of  God.  I  pray  Him  to  guide  us.  I  can 
scarcely  think  that  the  singular  leading  towards  you  is  to  come 
to  nothing. 

Yours  sincerely  always, 

Edw  :  Cantuar. 

In  June,  1886,  the  two  clergy  started.  A  farewell  service 
was  held  in  Lambeth  Chapel,  at  which  my  father  gave  an 
address  reminding  the  Missioners  that  those  to  whom  they 
were  going  looked  "  on  Augustine  himself  as  a  very  young 
brother."  He  charged  them  to  remember  the  greatness  of 
the  Mission  with  which  they  were  entrusted : — 

By  all  that  is  tender  and  faithful  and  true,  a  great  function  of 
Church  towards  Church  is  begun  in  us,  and  tenderness  and 
faithfulness  and  truth  must  be  the  outcome  of  that  grace  to  which 
you  are  not  in  vain  commended,  whatever  the  dispiritedness  to 
which  nature  will  tempt  you  at  the  constant  association  with 
untaught  priests  and  Bishops,  broken  Churches,  symbols  and 
rites   not  understood,  with  Christian  families  deprived  of  many 

common  privileges  of  mankind There  is  no  Mission  like  yours. 

It  is  emphatically  under  the  protection  of  the  Cotnforter,  in  the 
sweetest,  homeliest  way  in  which  that  Divine  Name  is  understood. 
...We  place  you  under  the  protection  of  the  Comforter  to  comfort 
them.  We  place  you  under  the  protection  of  the  Comforter  to 
strengthen  them,  and  at  the  least  you  cannot  but  be  a  great  sign 
of  God's  Love — God's  Love  to  the  old  Eastern  Church,  God's 
Love  to  the  Church  of  England. 

It  has  been  related  how  at  the  reading  of  the  lesson  for 
the  day,  during  the  breakfast  which  followed  this  service, 


i886-i887  MISSION    ESTABLISHED  183 

it  was  found — by  one  of  those  coincidences  in  which  my 
father  deHghted — to  be  the  story  of  the  Assyrian  emigrants 
in  the  cities  of  Samaria,  who  being  devoured  by  Hons, 
"because  they  knew  not  the  manner  of  the  God  of  the 
land,"  sent  to  entreat  that  a  priest  of  God  might  dwell 
among  them  and  teach  them. 

Mr  Athelstan  Riley  had  been  charged  by  the  Archbishop 
with  the  duty  of  taking  out  the  Mission  and  presenting  the 
Clergy  to  the  Patriarch,  the  Catholicos  of  the  East.  They 
had  bought  from  Mr  Wahl  his  house  in  Urmi,  and  this  was 
to  become  their  chief  centre.  The  Archbishop's  instructions 
were  (i)  not  in  any  way  to  draw  the  members  of  the  old 
East  Syrian  Church  away  from  their  allegiance  to  their  own 
ecclesiastical  authority,  and  not  in  any  way  to  Anglicanize 
them.  (2)  But  on  the  other  hand  not  to  propagate  or 
teach  anything  contrary  to  orthodox  doctrines  as  defined 
by  the  General  Councils. 

In  his  parting  address  to  the  Missioners  he  described 
the  nature  of  their  mission  : — 

Not  touching  questions  of  politics  or  of  government,  or  of 
administration  in  the  very  slightest  degree,  not  making  one  prose- 
lyte from  Church  to  Church,  nor  preaching  to  those  outside,  to 
whom  you  are  not  sent ;  you  have  to  infuse  fresh  life  into  that 
which  is  faint,  courage  into  that  which  is  afraid,  knowledge  into 
those  who  have  but  inaccurate  rudiments,  faith  where  everything 
on  earth  fights  against  faith. 

In  order  to  make  everything  quite  regular,  letters  were 
written  by  the  Archbishop  to  the  Oecumenical  Patriarch, 
and  also  to  the  Orthodox  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  to  prevent 
any  possible  misconception.  A  letter  was  also  written 
to  the  Catholicos  of  the  Armenians  at  Etchmiadzin,  to 
whom  Mr  Riley  had  been  earlier  commended,  assuring 
him  that  no  proselytism  among  Armenians  was  contem- 
plated. The  Archbishop  directed  the  work  to  be  carried 
on  in  co-operation  with  the  East  Syrian  authorities. 


1 84  COMMENDATORY   LETTERS  aet.  56 

The  following  is  the  official  letter  addressed  to  Mar 
Shimun,  Patriarch  of  the  Assyrian  Church,  announcing 
that  the  Archbishop  was  sending  out  two  priests,  as  desired, 
to  instruct  the  Assyrian  Christians  in  the  primitive  faith  : — 

Edward,  by  Divine  Providence  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Primate  of  All  England  and  Metropolitan,  to  our  well-beloved 
Brother  in  Christ  Mar  Shimun,  Patriarch  and  Catholicos  of  the 
Eastern  Regions,  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  Ancient  Church  of  the 
Chaldaeans,  health,  grace  and  blessing. 

Nearly  two  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  return  of  our 
well-beloved  son  in  Christ  Athelstan  Riley  from  the  journey 
we  commissioned  him  to  take,  and  since  the  receipt  of  the 
letter  from  Your  Holiness  to  us,  of  which  he  was  the  bearer. 
We  have  spent  the  time  in  careful  consideration  of  the  means 
whereby  we  may  best  carry  out  those  designs  of  assistance  to 
Your  ancient  Church  which  we  and  our  revered  predecessors  in 
this  See  have  so  long  entertained,  and  in  determining  how  we 
can  best  lay  an  enduring  foundation  for  the  mission  of  aid  to 
our  fellow  Christians  in  Assyria.  The  Reverend  Rudolph  Wahl 
having  been  recalled  we  have  chosen  two  learned  and  pious 
priests  of  our  Church  the  Reverend  Arthur  John  Maclean 
Canon  of  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Cumbrae  and  the  Reverend 
William  Henry  Browne,  both  Masters  of  Arts  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  and  we  have  sent  them  to  labour  amongst  Your 
people  in  the  Name  and  in  the  Power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
We  have  furthermore  acquired  buildings  at  Urmi  and  full  per- 
mission from  His  Majesty  the  Shah  for  our  mission  to  labour 
without  hindrance  amongst  those  of  Your  people  who  are  dwellers 
in  Persia.  In  addition  to  this  station  our  priests  will  endeavour 
in  the  course  of  this  year  or  the  next,  to  establish  a  second  either 
at  Kochanes,  Binter,  Asheetha,  or  some  other  central  place  amongst 
Your  Turkish  dioceses.  We  have  greatly  at  heart  the  education 
of  those  youths  who  will  hereafter  become  bishops,  priests  and 
leaders  of  the  people,  and  our  mission  will  aim  at  gathering  into 
a  central  school  or  college  such  persons  as  may  in  the  future 
become  spiritual  guides  and  instructors  of  Your  nation.  We  also 
concur  in  Your  anxiety  to  have  printed  the  ancient  service-books 
of  Your  Church,  and  have  sent  with  our  mission  a  suitable 
copying-press  for  that  purpose.  We  have  written  in  our  former 
letter  and  do  now  repeat  with  earnestness  that  nothing  is  more 


i886  COMMENDATORY   LETTERS  185 

contrary  to  our  wishes  than  that  any  should  be  drawn  away  from 
the  flock  of  Your  Church  into  new  and  strange  folds,  and  our 
object  in  sending  this  mission  to  Your  country  is  so  to  strengthen 
and  illuminate  Your  ancient  Church  that  she  may  be  enabled  to 
withstand  all  hostile  attacks  and  bring  up  her  children  in  the 
True  Faith  of  Christ  and  Life  in  Him. 

We  have  commissioned  our  beloved  son  in  Christ,  Athelstan 
Riley,  to  conduct  our  mission  priests  to  Your  country  and  to 
present  them  to  Your  Holiness  with  this  letter,  and  we  shall  await 
with  anxiety  the  report  which  he  will  bring. 

Commending  Your  Holiness  and  Your  flock  to  the  protection 
of  Almighty  God  we  wish  You  many  healthful  and  happy  days 
in  this  world,  and  the  reward  of  Eternal  Life  in  that  which  is  to 
come. 

And  we  remain  always  Your  faithful  Brother  in  Christ  our 
Lord. 

Edw  :  Cantuar : 

Given  at  our  Palace  at  Lambeth  in  London  under  our  hand 
and  seal  this  second  day  of  June  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  Eighteen 
hundred  and  Eighty-six. 

In  the  letter  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  the 
Archbishop  writes  that 

Canon  Curtis  and  the  Reverend  A.  E.  Brisco  Owen  are 
bringing  the  letter  introducing  to  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch  two 
learned  and  pious  priests  of  our  Church  who  are  going  out  for 
the  purpose  of  assisting  the  poor  and  ignorant  Assyrian  Christians 
to  better  their  religious  condition,  in  answer  to  the  many  appeals 
for  aid  made  to  us  by  their  ecclesiastical  rulers. 

Now  as  we  have  no  direct  means  of  communication  with  the 
Patriarch  of  Antioch  and  the  bearers  of  this  letter  are  unable  to 
undertake  the  necessary  journey  in  order  to  deliver  the  letter  to 
His  Holiness  in  person,  we  desire  to  solicit  Your  fraternal  good 
offices  in  the  transmission  of  the  said  letter  to  the  Patriarchal 
Throne  of  Antioch,  together  with  such  information  respecting 
our  intentions  as  it  may  seem  good  to  Your  Holiness  to  acquire 
from  the  mouths  of  these  trustworthy  persons. 

To  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch  he  says  : — 

We  desire  by  this  letter  of  ours  to  express  in  the  first  place, 


1 86  COMMENDATORY   LETTERS  aet.  56 

our  pleasure  at  the  tidings  which  have  come  to  us  of  the  recent 
elevation  to  the  Apostolic  Throne  of  Antioch  of  a  Pastor,  the 
report  of  whose  learning  and  piety  has  already  reached  our  ears, 
and  we  invoke  upon  Your  Holiness  and  upon  the  Flock  com- 
mitted to  Your  Charge  the  Blessing  of  the  All  Holy  and  Un- 
divided Trinity,  praying  Him  to  make  You  in  all  respects  a 
worthy  successor  of  the  Blessed  Apostle  Peter  and  of  our  Father 
amongst  the  Saints,  Ignatius  the  Martyr. 

After  mentioning  again  the  Mission  of  Canon  Maclean 
and  Mr  Browne  in  response  to  the  repeated  requests  of  the 
Nestorians  for  spiritual  aid  and  instruction  he  continues  : — 

Our  object  in  sending  out  these  two  priests,  of  whose  piety, 
learning  and  aptitude  for  the  work  entrusted  to  them  we  are  well 
assured,  is  not  to  bring  over  these  Christians  to  the  Communion 
of  the  Church  of  England,  nor  to  alter  their  ecclesiastical  customs 
and  traditions,  nor  to  change  any  doctrines  held  by  them  which 
are  not  contrary  to  that  Faith,  which  the  Holy  Spirit,  speaking 
through  the  Oecumenical  Councils  of  the  Undivided  Church  of 
Christ,  has  taught  as  necessary  to  be  believed  by  all  Christians ; 
but  to  encourage  them  in  bettering  their  religious  condition,  and 
to  strengthen  an  ancient  Church,  which,  through  ignorance  from 
within  and  persecution  from  without,  cannot  any  longer  stand 
alone,  but  without  some  assistance  must  eventually  succumb, 
though  unwillingly,  to  the  external  organisations  at  work  in  its 
midst. 

Following  our  instructions,  these  two  priests  will  open  schools 
and  a  college  for  persons  designated  for  the  Ministry,  and,  if 
possible,  print  and  distribute  amongst  them  such  ancient  service- 
books  and  theological  works  of  their  Church  as  are  in  accordance 
with  the  Faith  delivered  to  the  Saints. 

Now,  therefore,  seeing  that  these  Chaldaean  or  Assyrian 
Christians  anciently  formed  a  part  of  that  Flock  which  Your 
Holiness'  predecessors  were  set  by  the  Head  of  the  Church  to 
feed  and  to  guard,  we,  whilst  answering  to  the  cry  of  this  afflicted 
people,  "Come  over  and  help  us,"  desire  that  this  work  should 
receive  the  Benediction  of  Your  Holiness,  as  well  as  our  own 
to  which  we  would  fain  ask  Your  Holiness  to  add  with  the 
prayers  You  offer  before  the  Throne  of  Grace,  a  petition  that 
these  two   pastors   may  be  endued  with  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom 


i886  COMMENDATORY   LETTERS  187 

and  Understanding,  the  Spirit  of  Counsel  and  Ghostly  Strength, 
and  the  Spirit  of  Knowledge,  True  Godliness  and  Holy  Fear. 

We  conclude,  expressing  the  sentiments  of  fraternal  affection 
and  esteem  which  we  entertain  towards  Your  person  and  office, 
and  praying  that  Your  reward  may  be  in  many  souls  gathered 
unto  Christ. 

And  we  remain  always  Your  faithful  bedesman  and  brother 
in  Christ  our  God, 

Edw  :  Cantuar : 

Given  at  our  Palace  at  Lambeth  in  London,  and  sealed  with 
our  Archiepiscopal  seal  this  first  day  of  February  in  the  Year  of 
our  Lord  One  thousand  Eight  hundred  and  Eighty-six. 

In  the  same  year  a  letter  was  sent  to  the  Presiding 
Bishop  of  the  American  Church  announcing  the  arrival  of 
the  new  Missioners  among  the  Nestorians. 

In  the  course  of  this  letter  the  Archbishop  says  : — 

The  people  seem  deeply  thankful  that  our  work  among  them 
is  devoted  to  the  strengthening  of  their  own  Church  by  the 
education  of  their  boys  and  especially  of  those  who  are  intended 
for  the  Priesthood.  There  is  something  inexpressibly  painful  in 
the  thought  that  hitherto  the  diversities  and  differences  between 
our  Churches  have  been  mainly  impressed  upon  them.  The 
Roman  Catholics  and  the  American  Presbyterians  are  each  trying 
to  draw  them  into  separate  folds  and  so  annihilate  that  antient 
Church.  We  shall  not  in  the  least  attempt,  or  countenance  any 
attempt,  to  draw  individuals  over  to  ourselves,  but  shall  in  every 
way  seek  to  keep  them  within  their  own  bounds  and  to  revive  the 
light  which  once  was  bright  and  strong  among  them.  So  far 
there  is  no  appearance  of  unorthodoxy  among  them  or  of  giving 
any  but  an  orthodox  sense  to  Scripture....!  felt  sure  from  the 
interest  that  so  many  of  our  brethren  have  expressed  beyond  the 
sea,  that  you  would  gladly  hear  that  our  mission  has  been  really 
begun  and  will,  to  all  appearance,  be  well  supported. 

The  commendatory  letters  were  well  received.  The 
Patriarch  of  Antioch  wrote  : — 

We  were  moved  in   our  inmost  heart  and  rejoiced  in  spirit 


i88  RECEPTION   OF   MISSIONERS  aet.  57 

when... the  most  holy  Archbishop  of  Canterbury... transmitted  to 
us  the  fraternal  letters... wherein  your  honoured  Highness  ad- 
dresses expressions  of  congratulation  to  us  in  joyfulness  of  soul 
and  heart  upon  the  proclamation  of  our  Mediocrity. ...These 
things  and  the  other  manifold  grace  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Gospel 
abounding  in  your  fraternal  Epistle  which  clearly  bears  witness  of 
a  soul  dear  to  God, ...and  above  all  the  great  regard  of  your 
Holiness  for  the  venerable  Orthodox  Church  of  Christ  amongst 
us,  disposed  us  most  favourably,  and  created  a  certain  unspeakable 
affection  towards  you  in  our  soul.... In  the  next  place  we  praise 
the  good  work  you  have  done  on  behalf  of  the  unjustly  suffering 
Christians  in  Persia  and  Kurdistan,  and  we  heartily  bless  the  two 
distinguished  Priests  of  the  English  Church  who  have  undertaken 
this  Ministry. 

When  the  Missionaries  arrived  at  Urmi  they  met  the 
Bishop  and  about  two  hundred  of  his  people  -who  had 
come  out  to  receive  them.  From  here  they  crossed  into 
Turkey,  and  when  they  were  within  a  six  hours'  journey  of 
Qudshanis  they  were  met  by  the  Patriarch  Mar  Shimun. 

The  news  of  their  coming  had  reached  the  only  learned 
man  who  was  left  in  the  Assyrian  Church,  the  hermit 
Rabban  Yonan,  the  one  man  who  could  multiply  their 
Service-books,  for  he  wrote  them  out  with  his  own  hand. 
He  lived  in  a  little  cell  near  the  Church,  but  his  reputation 
of  saintliness  and  learning  had,  as  Mr  Riley  says,  "  spread 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  Church."  The  beauty  of 
his  smile  had  been  spoken  of,  and  a  photograph,  much 
valued  by  my  father,  shows  him  in  his  cell,  clasping  a 
Cross  in  his  arms,  with  a  face  of  singular  sweetness  and 
devotion.  He  had  longed  for  the  coming  of  the  Missioners. 
"I  am  old  and  alone,"  he  had  said  in  1884;  "what  can  I 
do?" 

This  man  now  met  them  an  hour  away  from  the  city, 
fell  on  their  necks  and  embraced  them,  and  taking  his  staff 
went  before  them  to  Qudshanis. 

It  was  but  three  weeks  after  he  had   looked  on  the 


i886  CAUTION   RECOMMENDED  189 

beginning  of  the  longed-for  revival,  that  the  "  Apostles " 
from  England  followed  the  Rabban  Yonan  to  his  grave. 

As  soon  as  the  Missioners  had  reached  the  scene  of 
action  the  Archbishop  wrote  them  a  long  letter  advising 
extreme  caution  ;  he  earnestly  begged  that  they  would 
avoid  any  course  of  action  which  could  possibly  be  mis- 
interpreted as  having  a  political  bearing  ;  the  danger  in 
view  was  that  the  Russians  might  be  jealous  of  any  supposed 
attempts  to  give  England  a  predominating  influence  in  a 
Turkish  province  : — 

Addington  Park,   Croydon. 

Nov.  15,  1886. 
My  dear  Canon  Maclean, 

Let  me  first  assure  you  and  Mr  Browne  of  the  anxious 
and  rejoicing  thoughts  which  I  cherish  about  you,  and  the  work 
which  you  have  begun  so  well,  and  the  prospect  (although  it  is 
not  all  bright)  that  lies  before  you.  I  often  utter  an  ejaculatory 
prayer  for  all  this,  and  daily  when  I  wake  one  of  the  very  first 
petitions  which  I  offer  in  the  dark  is  for  the  Assyrian  Missioners. 
I  only  tell  you  this  because  I  know,  when  one  is  nearly  alone, 
how  the  certainty  of  mutual  communion  in  His  Presence,  Who  is 
watching,  and  knowing,  and  ruling  all,  is  helpful.  You  do  not 
cease  to  pray  for  the  manifold  energies  of  the  Church  here 

I  have  written  a  long  despatch  to  Lord  Iddesleigh\  explaining 
again  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  political  bias  in  yourselves 
or  in  the  Committee,  that  our  aim  is  purely  religious,  that  the 
Foreign  Office  has  nothing  to  do  with  your  work,  that  your  work 
will  certainly  make  the  people  better  subjects  to  their  rulers 
whoever  they  are. 

It  may  be  that  you  will  have  to  look  rather  to  helping  them 
through  natives  than  by  your  personal  work  (I  think  not).  You 
must  avoid  demonstrations  and  not  let  the  Chaldeans  show 
any  excessive  delight  in  you  as  Englishmen.  You  will  court  the 
presence  of  any  Russians  and  let  them  see  what  you  do  and  hear 
from  yourselves  an  account  of  your  principles  as  non-politicians, 
and  how  the  English  Government  have  shown  no  interest  in  you 

^  Then  Foreign  Secretary.  He  died  suddenly  in  the  ante-room  of  the 
Prime  Minister's   House,    lo,   Downing  Street,   lath  Jan.,    1887. 


I90  SCHOOLS    ESTABLISHED  aet.  6o 

or  your  work,  and  have  only  forwarded  you  as  travellers.  You 
must  not  bate  a  particle  of  your  rights  to  reside  in  Turkey,  and 
exercise  all  freedom  which  the  treaties  allow  as  to  buying  and 
possessing  house  or  land.  Rights  must  be  duly  used,  but  I  hope 
that  as  a  rule  you  will  hold  no  conversations  with  anyone  on 
Russia  or  on  England.  I  pray  God  to  have  you  in  His  holy 
keeping  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake. 

Your  faithful  and  affectionate  friend  and  pastor, 

Edw.  Cantuar, 

I  think  Riley  holds  that  the  presence  of  an  Englishman  in  the 
hills  would  prevent  Mar  Shimun  from  being  oppressed,  to  a  great 
extent. 

The  outlines  of  the  scheme  and  its  practical  working 
we  can  touch  upon  but  briefly. 

The  first  object  was  to  establish  schools  anriong  the 
Assyrians,  particularly  for  the  instruction  of  those  who 
were  to  become  priests  and  deacons.  In  Urmi,  an  upper 
school  for  priests  and  deacons  and  a  lower  school  for 
students  under  17  were  first  established.  To  the  lower 
school,  or  High  School  for  boys,  came  some  of  the  little 
Bishops  designate, — Natar  Kursi,  or  Nazarites,  as  they  are 
called. 

Since  then  other  schools  have  been  added  at  Superghan, 
Ardishai  and  across  the  Turkish  frontier. 

An  important  addition  to  the  effective  power  of  these 
schools  follows  from  the  fact  that  the  instruction  thus 
given  is  passed  on.  During  that  time  of  the  year  when 
the  agricultural  work  needs  more  hands  the  scholars  go 
home,  and  those  who  are  fitted  to  do  so  conduct  schools  in 
their  villages.  There  are  now  104  of  these  schools,  and  the 
net  cost  of  each  is  only  £^  a  year. 

In  1890  the  Mission  determined  on  a  new  venture. 
Education  for  the  boys  had  been  established  on  a  solid 
basis — but  nothing  had  been  done  to  provide  education  for 
the  women.     The  Sisterhood  of  Bethany  sent  out  two  of 


1890  SERVICE-BOOKS  191 

their  Sisters  in  1890  who  estabHshed  a  girls'  school  at 
Urmi. 

The  difficulties  in  the  education  of  girls  were  in  some 
ways  great,  as  they  marry  very  young,  but  there  was  much 
desire  for  it.  "  All  the  little  girls  we  meet  ask  to  come  to 
our  school,"  the  Sisters  wrote  in  1891.  But  the  Sisters' 
work  was  educational  in  the  largest  sense — discipline, 
cleanliness,  knowledge  of  household  matters,  kindness  to 
animals,  were  not  neglected  in  the  bringing  up  of  the 
children.  Nor  was  the  educational  work  of  the  Sisters 
limited  to  their  work  with  the  little  girls  in  the  Urmi 
school.  Some  village  schools  were  established,  and  the 
Sisters  travelled  about  to  the  villages  making  acquaintance 
with  the  women,  teaching  them,  doctoring  them. 

It  is  a  matter  of  great  regret  that  lor  the  present  the 
work  of  the  Sisters  has  had  to  be  given  up. 

As  a  help  to  preserving  the  national  character  even  of 
the  schools  it  was  early  decided  that  all  scholars  must 
continue  to  wear  the  national  dress,  or  as  the  literal  trans- 
lation of  the  "Canons"  of  the  schools  runs,  "that  they 
may  not  put  on  the  clothes  of  Frangistan  (Europe)  in  the 
yards  of  the  apostles." 

The  other  great  point  of  the  work  as  it  was  first 
established  was  the  printing  of  the  Service-books.  Before, 
as  has  been  said,  they  were  multiplied  by  manuscript 
copying,  and  there  were  few  to  be  had.  A  convenient 
power,  possibly  created  by  the  necessity,  was  observed  in 
the  children,  that  they  could  read  or  look  at  pictures 
equally  well  right  way  up  sideways,  or  upside  down. 
Thus  a  small  congregation  grouping  itself  round  a  Service- 
book  could  to  some  extent  respond.  Nevertheless  the 
lack  of  books  was  a  serious  bar  in  the  way  of  instruction. 

The  Mission  printing  press  was  set  at  work  not  without 
many  difficulties,  but   these  surmounted,  the  publications 


192 


LITURGIES  AET.  61 


have  been  interesting  and  valuable,  not  only  in  printing 
the  Daily  Offices,  catechisms,  grammars  and  books  for  the 
schools,  but  the  very  ancient  Liturgies  of  the  Assyrian 
Church  \ 

Of  these  the  Liturgy  of  the  Apostles  (of  St  Addai  and 
St  Mari)  is  in  all  probability  the  oldest  extant  Liturgy  now 
in  use  in  the  world,  as  from  internal  evidence  its  date  must 
be  earlier  than  the  Council  of  Ephesus'. 

There  is  added  to  this  a  Litany  of  a  later  date,  in  which 
Diodorus,  Theodore  and  Nestorius  are  commemorated '. 
A  third  is  attributed,  but  on  doubtful  authority,  to  Nestorius 
himself  Another  Liturgy,  ascribed  to  Theodore  of  Mop- 
suestia,  dates  possibly  from  the  fourth  century. 

But  actual  educational  work  and  the  direction  of  the 
printing  press  do  not  sum  up  the  result  of  the  Mission. 
The  "  Apostles,"  as  they  are  called,  travel  about  preaching  ; 
respected,  as  Europeans  are,  for  honesty  and  uprightness 
in  the  midst  of  a  quarrelsome  Eastern  Nation,  they  not 
unfrequently  have  disputes,  both  temporal  and  ecclesiastical, 
referred  to  them  for  informal  arbitration.  Moreover  the 
very  presence  of  a  European  has,  as  the  Archbishop  had 
good  reason  to  hope,  been  to  some  extent  a  protection 
to  the  native  Christians. 

With  the  Persian  Government  they  have  been  on 
particularly  cordial  terms.  In  Jan.  1891  the  Archbishop, 
writing  to  the  Dean  of  Windsor,  says  : — 

I  am  glad  you  think  we  shall  have  the  ^500  from  the 
S.P.C.K.  With  it  we  could  do  what  the  Consul  General  tells 
Lord   Salisbury  he   hopes  we   may  be   able  to  do — open  fuore 

'  Before  the  latter  books  were  printed  Canon  Bright  examined  them  in  a 
translation,  and  discussed  several  passages  which  the  Missionaries  referred  to 
him  for  his  opinion,  but  found  no  heretical  doctrines  in  them,  though  the 
names  of  certain  heresiarchs  commemorated  in  them  had  to  be  omitted. 

-  Many  of  these  facts  were  supplied  by  Miss  Payne  .Smith  (Mrs  Margoliouth) 
who  gave  much  help  in  the  translation  of  the  Liturgies. 

'  These  names  are  not  printed  in  the  Mission  Edition. 


TEACHING  OF  TRUTH 


193 


village  schools.... The  Shah's  son,  "the  Wali  Ahd ',"  who  is 
Governor  of  the  district,  has  visited  our  schools  at  Urmi  and  is 
much  pleased.     He  says  "we  are  making  good  subjects." 

The  following  is  an  interesting  letter  about  the  para- 
mount duty  of  preaching  and  teaching  Truth  among 
Orientals. 

Lambeth  Palace,  1888. 
Dear  Canon  Maclean, 

I  want  to  add  to  what  Mr  Baynes  has  expressed  for 
me  that  it  seems  to  me  that  in  educating  the  Assyrian  the  first 
point  of  all  to  be  made  with  him  is  Truth,  Veracity.  Until  this  is 
successfully  grafted  into  the  soul  of  the  nation,  nothing  will  bear 
true  fruit — that  is  a  long  way  off.  But  if  we  could  only  make  it  a 
characteristic  of  our  Christians  !  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  there  is  any  nation  (which  now  possesses  it)  which  has  not 
learnt  this  virtue  and  one  remembers  that  it  was  once  characteristic 
of  the  Persians.     The  Greeks  admired  but  did  not  imitate. 

Their  ivord,  their  honour  ought  to  be  encouraged  in  every  way 
— their  word  often  taken  when  it  is  doubtful  (which  you  remember 
was  Arnold's  successful  discipline  when  the  tone  of  boys  to 
masters  in  all  public  schools  was  at  the  lowest  ebb  in  this  respect. 
It  was  then  quite  lawful  to  tell  a  lie  to  a  master  in  the  school  by 
Code — and  that  is  now  quite  gone). 

In  the  Bible  the  slow  or  swift  following  judgments  on  untruth, 
the  noble  words  about  Truth,  the  classification  of  the  maker  and 
lover  of  a  lie  in  the  Revelation,  and  all  manner  of  such  things 
should  be  pointed  out  among  the  lessons  of  the  Faith.  I  hope 
the  mission  will  quite  agonize  about  this.  They  never  can  rise 
without  it  to  anything  we  wish. 

May  God  bless  most  the  faith,  patience,  wisdom,  with  which 
He  makes  you  to  work — a  great  benediction  on  you  all  and 
each. 

Yours   ever  sincerely, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

With  reference  to  the  Archbishop's  whole  attitude  to  the 
Mission,  Canon  Maclean  says  : — 

It  was  not  generally  realised,  except  by  ourselves  and  those 
in  England  who  had  most  to  do  with  this  Mission,  how  unsparingly 

^  "  Heir  Apparent  " — the  present  Shah  of  Persia. 
B.  n.  13 


194  PERSONAL   ENTHUSIASM  aet.  56-67 

the  Archbishop  gave  himself  up  even  to  the  details  of  the  work, 
which  he  had  truly  at  heart.  His  frequent  letters  were  a  great 
encouragement  to  the  missionaries,  who  felt  that  they  could  always 
refer  any  difficulty  direct  to  his  Grace  and  be  sure  of  patient  and 
sympathetic  attention. 

From  time  to  time  there  had  been  much  cause  for  anxiety 
about  the  finances ;  the  work  constantly  outgrowing  the  income. 
Here  too  the  Archbishop's  labours  were  untiring. 

One  great  point  the  Archbishop  made  was  to  leave  us 
missionaries  as  free  a  hand  as  possible.  He  laid  down  the  general 
principles  and  left  us  to  carry  out  the  details.  Yet  if  we  referred 
any  detail  to  him,  he  was  always  ready  to  attend  to  it,  however 
small  it  might  be. 

As  the  Mission  grew  the  Archbishop  laid  great  stress  on  the 
united  action  of  the  Missionaries ;  for  this  reason  he  desired  us 
to  have  frequent  meetings  for  consultation,  and  laid  down  the 
principle  that  in  all  departments  of  the  work  the  opinion  of  the 
majority  should  prevail.  The  Archbishop's  personal  kindness  to 
each  of  us  is  a  thing  we  can  never  forget. 

The  Quarterly  Paper  of  the  Assyrian  Mission  for  Jan. 
1897  (No.  26)  says: — 

Not,  perhaps,  the  Church  generally,  but  only  those  brought 
into  close  connexion  with  him,  can  realise  the  great  love  the 
Archbishop  felt  for  the  Mission,  and  his  tender  sympathy  for  the 
Assyrians.  Few  know  how  much  space  the  work  occupied  in  his 
thoughts.  He  was,  though  not  the  inaugurator  of  the  Mission, 
yet  the  one  who  placed  it  on  its  present  basis. 

One  may  add  to  this  what  can  hardly  be  known  except 
to  near  friends  and  to  those  of  his  own  family — the  intense 
interest  which  he  took  even  in  all  minor  matters  of  the 
Mission — the  eagerness  with  which  he  read  the  letters 
when  they  came — the  pleasure  with  which  he  read  them  to 
his  children  or  to  friends — his  memory  and  quotation  of 
a  phrase  which  had  touched  him — as  when  the  Patriarch, 
writing  of  his  thankfulness  for  the  Mission,  pathetically 
said  of  the  Church,  "  Once  they  were  as  a  fortress,  now 
they  are  like  a  field  covered  with  great  stones." 


1888-1896  ASSYRIAN   ASSOCIATION  195 

The  Magazine,  when  it  was  first  started  at  his  desire, 
was  edited  entirely  under  his  own  supervision  ;  he  had  not 
of  course  time  to  make  selections  from  letters  and  reports 
himself  but  he  looked  over  or  had  read  to  him  all  that 
was  to  be  inserted.  In  all  the  details  that  were  sent  to 
him  he  had  a  vivid  interest — followed  the  disturbance 
which  was  caused  in  the  Mission  by  the  discovery  of 
chicken  bones  in  the  soup  of  a  little  "  Nazarite,"  and  the 
relief  felt  by  the  Assyrians  when  the  child  was  proved  to 
have  not  partaken  of  the  meat :  was  amused  by  an  answer 
in  the  school,  where  the  number  of  the  Innocents  was 
pronounced  according  to  Assyrian  tradition  to  be  144,000  ; 
or  a  delightful  misreading  of  the  "  baser  sort "  as  "  the 
bazaar  sort,"  an  apt  if  unintentional  rendering  of  tmv 
uyopaioov^. 

It  was  this  characteristic,  vivid  interest  in  the  detail  of 
everything  in  which  he  was  concerned  that  one  cannot 
help  connecting  with  that  peculiar  impulse  of  vitality 
which  made  all  organisations  flourish  under  his  hand. 

To  meet  the  needs  of  Mission  work  he  not  only  opened 
a  general  fund,  but  an  association,  primarily  of  ladies,  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  the  Sisters,  of  which  Miss 
Hutchinson  was  secretary.  Later  it  was  placed  on  a 
wider  footing,  and  made  coextensive  with  the  whole  scope 
of  the  Mission.  This  association  at  the  present  time  has 
89  branches. 

The  generous  contribution  of  the  S.P.C.K.  has  already 
been  alluded  to,  but  the  support  of  the  Mission  was  not 
confined  to  England.  The  Theological  Seminary  of  New 
York  cooperates  largely  in  the  work,  supporting  in  Urmi 
a  native  Syrian  Priest  in  American  Orders,  who  was 
educated  at  the  Seminary. 

Other   Clergy   and   Sisters   than   those   first   sent  have 

■'  "The  'loafers'  of  the  market  place,"  Acts  xvii.  5. 

13—2 


196  RESULTS    OF   THE    MISSION  1896-1899 

gone  out  for  a  term  of  years  and  returned,  or  been  obliged 
through  ill-health  to  go  home,  and  two  have  given  life  itself 
to  the  Mission \  Mr  Browne  has  from  the  beginning 
remained  with  the  Mission,  and  living  alone  at  Kochanes, 
or  in  other  parts  of  Kurdistan,  has  carried  on  a  wonderful 
work  in  wild  and  half-barbarous  places. 

The  Mission  is  doing  steadily,  soberly  and  slowly  the 
work  for  which  the  Nestorians  so  pitifully  petitioned,  and 
which  my  father  had  in  contemplation  when  the  organisa- 
tion was  formed  and  grew  under  his  hand.  It  is  building 
again  the  old  wastes,  repairing  the  breach,  restoring  paths 
to  dwell  in.  He  looked  afar  towards  a  great  future  for  the 
Church,  a  future  of  greatness  commensurate  with  its  past, 
when  the  learning  which  they  so  eagerly  imbibe,  the 
theological  and  metaphysical  interest  which  even  the  boys 
exhibit,  should  have  done  their  work,  and  the  Missionary 
zeal  of  the  past  should  have  revived  the  Church  that  for 
long  centuries  has  dragged  out  a  life  which  is  only  just 
alive.  For  one  of  the  chief  considerations  which  moved 
him  to  take  such  an  interest  in  the  Assyrian  Mission  was 
that  the  so-called  Nestorian  Church  had  once  been  a  famous 
Missionary  Church,  and  that  it  might  hereafter,  when  in- 
structed and  purified,  become  so  again — for  more  than 
once  he  expressed  his  conviction  that  only  Orientals  could 
evangelise  Orientals. 

Since  the  above  was  written  a  change  has  taken  place  in  the  arrangements 
of  the  Mission.  Since  1897  a  Mission  from  the  Orthodox  Russian  Church  has 
succeeded  in  enrolling  nearly  the  whole  diocese  of  Superghan  with  its  Bishop ; 
and  has  now  taken  up  its  quarters  next  door  to  the  English  Mission  in  Urmi. 
By  the  desire  of  Archbishop  Temple  the  English  Mission  has  acted  in  harmony 
with  the  Russian,  but  while  the  adherence  to  the  latter  continues  there  is  little 
scope  for  the  English  Mission  in  Persia.  On  the  other  hand  the  Christians  in 
Turkey,  originally  the  principal  object  of  the  Mission,  are  even  more  desirous 
than  formerly  of  its  development  among  them.  Arrangements  have  therefore 
been  made  to  transfer  the  headquarters  across  the  Turkish  frontier,  without 
withdrawing  from  those  Persian  villages  which  still  desire  the  teaching  of  the 
English. 

^  The  Reverend  Arthur  S.  Jervis  and  Sister  Katherine  Mildred. 


CHAPTER   V. 

LETTERS   AND    DIARIES. 

''^  Fill  hominis,  speculatorefn  dedi  te  domui  Israel j   et  audies  de 
ore  nieo  verbum,  et  annutitiabis  eis  ex  me."     EZECH.  in.   17. 

The  year  1888  was  full  both  of  interests  and  anxieties. 
The  chief  difficulties  of  the  Jerusalem  Bishopric  question 
had  barely  been  surmounted.  The  prosecution  of  the 
Bishop  of  Lincoln  was  already  beginning.  The  Lambeth 
Conference,  the  gathering  of  Bishops  of  the  English, 
American  and  Colonial  Churches,  was  to  take  place  in 
the  summer.  The  Archbishop's  mind  was  occupied  too 
by  questions  which  were  arising  with  regard  to  the  relation 
of   the  English  Church  to  the  old  Catholic  movement. 

In  explanation  of  this  latter  subject  M.  Alexis  Larpent 
writes : — 

In  July,  1870,  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility  was  proclaimed, 
but  so  strong  had  been  the  opposition  to  it  that  a  schism  would 
have  arisen  among  the  Roman  Catholics  had  not  war  turned  all 
minds  away  from  religious  controversies.  As  the  supposed  Infalli- 
bility was  limited  to  definitions  "  ex  cathedra  "  on  matters  of  Faith 
and  morals,  the  German  and  French  bishops  insisted  on  the  restric- 
tions of  the  decree  and  enforced  its  acceptance  on  their  clergy. 
There  was  however  a  band  of  German  theologians  who  could  not 
be  induced  to  submit :  chief  among  them  was  Dollinger,  who,  in 
March,  187 1,  at  Munich,  protested  against  the  innovation.  This 
protest  originated  a  reformation,  the  adherents  of  which  were 
called  Old  Catholics.  In  1872,  they  met  in  congress  at  Cologne. 
On  the  nth  of  August,  1873,  Dr  Joseph  Hubert  Reinkens  their 
first  bishop  was  consecrated  by  the  Jansenist  bishop  Hermann 
Heykamp  of  Deventer,  the  Archiepiscopal  see  of  Utrecht  being 


198  OLD    CATHOLIC    MOVEMENT  aet.  58 

then  vacant.  Articles  of  reform  were  enacted  in  1874,  at  Bonn, 
in  which  town  other  conferences  were  held  in  the  following  years. 
In  1876,  Dr  Edward  Herzog,  still  living,  was  consecrated  bishop 
for  Switzerland.  The  present  bishop  for  Germany  is  Dr  Weber, 
successor  of  Reinkens.  In  Germany,  Switzerland  and  Austria, 
the  Old  Catholics  still  keep  their  ground.  In  France  the  move- 
ment was  a  failure. 

Beside  rejecting  Papal  assumptions,  the  Old  Catholics  use  the 
vernacular  languages  in  liturgical  services  which  have  been  them- 
selves considerably  modified  and  reformed,  and  they  allow  priests 
to  marry.  Confession  among  them  is  voluntary  instead  of 
obligatory  as  in  the  Roman  Church. 

At  Bonn,  Greeks,  Russians  and  Anglicans  came  to  listen,  to 
observe  and  to  advise.  The  Orthodox  were  friendly  but  reserved : 
their  creed  had  been  closed  centuries  ago  and  the  Old  Catholic 
position  seemed  to  them  half  Roman  and  half  Protestant. 
The  Anglicans  were  most  interested  in  the  Catholic  Reformation. 
The  Bishop  of  Lincoln  (Christopher  Wordsworth)  gave  his  warm 
support.  The  Bishop  Harold  Browne  of  Ely  (afterwards  of 
Winchester)  and  other  ecclesiastics,  spoke  or  sent  words  of  en- 
couragement. The  Lambeth  Conference  of  1878  offered  help 
and  sympathy.  Archbishop  Tait,  in  1882,  welcomed  at  Lambeth 
Reinkens  and  Herzog ;  other  visits  have  been  interchanged  and 
Anglican  Bishops  have  from  time  to  time  attended  the  Old 
Catholic  congresses  \ 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  attitude  of  Archbishop 
Benson  towards  the  Old  Catholic  movement.  He  was  devoted 
to  the  ancient  traditions  of  the  universal  church,  and  he  yearned 
tenderly  for  the  restoration  of  the  visible  unity  of  Christendom. 
He  was  also  a  sincere  admirer  of  Dollinger,  but  he  always  felt 
that  the  Old  Catholics  had  not  fulfilled  the  hopes  which  they  had 
raised.  He  saw  clearly  that,  after  all,  the  English  church  had 
already  given  more  than  she  had  received  and  that  her  ecclesi- 
astical status  had  not  even  been  fully  acknowledged  by  the 
Jansenist    Church   of    Holland,    from   whom   the    Old   Catholic 

^  Indeed  Representatives  were  nominated  for  this  last  purpose  under  a 
resolution  of  the  Lambeth  Conference  of  1897.  The  present  position  is  that 
Anglicans  who  desire  to  communicate  in  the  Old  Catholic  churches  of  Germany, 
Switzerland  and  Austria  are  admitted,  and  are  admitted  to  Communion  in  both 
kinds  in  those  churches  in  Germany,  where  Communion  in  one  kind  is  still  the 
custom. 


i888  COUNT   CAMPELLO  199 

Church  had  obtained  ApostoUc  succession.  In  1888,  the  Bishops 
of  Salisbury^  and  Newcastle'^,  who  had  accepted  the  commission 
to  draw  a  report  on  the  Jansenist  Church,  were  not  able  to  remove 
all  misunderstandings.  Archbishop  Benson  therefore  maintained, 
as  Primate,  an  attitude  of  dignity  and  caution  somewhat  similar 
to  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Russians.  Full  of  sympathy  with  those 
who  rejected  Roman  supremacy  he  certainly  wished  every  success 
to  the  Old  Catholics  as  missionaries  of  Evangelical  truth,  but, 
before  he  could  give  his  unqualified  protection,  it  would  have 
been  necessary  to  obtain  from  the  whole  body  of  Bishops  definite 
pledges  of  brotherly  recognition,  which  pledges  have  not— as  yet 
— been  forthcoming. 

On  Jan.  26th  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin  came  to 
Addington  to  talk  over  the  reform  movement  in  Italy'*. 
The  Archbishop  notes  this,  adding : — 

A  little  later,  came  out  an  article  on  Campello, — "  Italian 
meddling,"  "  Episcopal  meddling,"  or  some  such  title. 

It  attributed  to  Archbishop  Tait  every  course  which  I  have 
followed,  [word  erased]  to  me  the  steps  which  Abp  Tait  took.  It 
prescribed  with  much  scorn  the  plan  which  I  now  should  follow. 
It  is  exactly  what  I  have  done.  Campello,  though  in  earnest, 
knows  very  little.  When  he  has  applied  to  me  I  have  sent  him 
messages  expressive  of  the  interest  I  feel,  but  stated  that  I  hold 
that  reform  must  arise  and  grow  within  a  church — that  to  foster 
it  with  money  from  England,  or  to  make  English  people  and 
prelates  take  a  lead  in  it  would  discredit,  in  the  eyes  of  good 
Italians,  and  give  Reform  an  inalienable  foreign  and  Protestant 
stamp.  That  they  must  struggle  on  with  our  sympathy  but  not 
our  co-operation.  They  can  get  various  Bishops  to  confirm  for 
them  and  old  Catholic  Bishops  to  ordain  for  them — must  be  true 
to  their  own  lines  and  national.  My  "interest"  is  then  trans- 
formed into  my  having  a  Mission  in  Italy  for  them — so  that  a 
little  later  Worcester  was  placarded  with  "  Italian  Mission — Abps 
of  Canterbury  and  Dublin,  patrons  !  " 

One  feels  for  them  as  for  our  Reformers.  But  they  are  so 
"mild,"  so  "unoriginal,"  and  some  of  them,  as  Hyacinthe,  so 
descend  from  the  ground  they  might  occupy,  by  marrying,  that 

1  John  Wordsworth. 

2  Ernest  Roland  Wilberforce,  now  Bishop  of  Chichester. 
2  Headed  by  Count  Campello. 


200  PROTESTANT   REFORM  aet.  58 

there  is  no  vis  and  there  is  also  no  learning,  among  them,  out  of 
Germany.  In  Austria  there  is  an  extraordinary  adhesion  of  the 
poor  to  them. 

The  Diary  continues  : — 

Jan.  18.  10.30.  Met  Archbishop  of  York  and  Bishop  of 
London  to  choose  a  Bishop  for  A (a  Colony). 

Originally  they  elected  for  themselves  B . ...     He  asked 

my  counsel... and   declined.     They  then  elected   Bishop  C 

who  declined.  They  finally  committed  the  election  to  us,  but 
though  it  seems  they  can  do  this,  our  nominee  must  after  all,  by 
their    constitution,    be   balloted   for — so   he   might   after   all   be 

rejected  by  mere  abstention,  or  actually  blackballed We  held 

therefore  that  if  we  set  aside  our  own  dignity  altogether,  and 
submitted  a  name  to  be  thus  dealt  with,  we  could  on  no  account 
subject  a  man  of  mark  and  worth  to  be  known  henceforth 
possibly  as  "the  Bishop-Reject  of  A ." 

We  telegraphed  that  if  we  could  have  no  assurance  that  our 
nominee  would  be  really  elected,  we  could  not  nominate.  They 
composed  their  differences  instantly  and  elected  Dr  D . 

Jan.  31.  Preached  at  Berkhamstead  with  scarcely  any  voice 
to  about  2000  people  crammed  into  their  glorious  church.  The 
historical  associations !  The  people  who  have  lived  here ! 
England  makes  nothing  in  education  of  the  richest  treasure  of 
association  which  any  people  has. 

Feb.  I.  Lunched  at  Nottingham  with  the  Mayor— a  great 
Radical — who  gave  me  a  really  splendid  reception.  Lord 
Manvers,  Duke  of  St  Albans  and  many  magnates  met  me. 
Spoke  with  rags  of  voice  for  the  Bishop's  Spiritual  Aid  Fund. 

Feb.  2.  With  the  last  end  of  my  voice  took  part  in  the  noble 
Southwell  opening.  The  restoration  by  Ecclesiastical  Commis- 
sioners have  "swept"  the  church  very  clean,  but  not  "garnished  " 
it  much.     The  congregation  glorious  :  returned  to  Addington. 

Shortly  after  this  he  writes  of  a  visitor  : — 

A held  me  by  the  hand,  affectionate  and  able  old  boy. 

But  there  is  no  heart  and  love  for  the  episcopal  office  and  work. 
His  energy  is  a  love  of  work,  not  a  work  of  love — which  is  a  very 
different  thing. 

Feb.  9.  Made  Deacon  in  1853,  and  in  1878  my  dearest 
Martin  departed,   ^   IN  PACE,  as  he  inscribed  his  own  prayer- 


i888  PORTRAIT    BY    HERKOMER  201 

book.      That   he    prayed    and    prays    still    "  In    Pace "    for    me 
"  MiHtiae "  I  know  and  feel. 

On  the  13th  of  February  he  went  down  as  usual  with 
my  mother  to  Winchester.     He  writes : — 

Feb.  \j,th.  Lambeth.  Winchester.  —  Martini  sepulcrum. 
Went  down  to  Winchester  with  Minnie  and  went  over  all  the 
endeared  spots — and  laid  the  cross  on  the  loved  turf.  The  bay- 
tree  is  growing  over  it  again.  In  the  corner  of  5  th  chamber  in 
which  he  had  his  bed,  and  where  his  name  is  now  on  the  little 
marble  slab  which  the  boys  put  up  to  him,  they  have  opened  a 
window  into  the  court — a  new  window — and  as  one  of  the  corbels 
of  the  hoodmould  over  it  they  have  carved  a  head  meant  for  our 
Martin — a  dear  boy's  head  but  not  very  like.  How  he  would  have 
thrilled  to  think  that  in  the  place  which  he  loved  every  stone  of, 
they  would  so  try  to  keep  the  similitude  of  him.  It  is  a  world 
full  of  touches. 

On  the  1 6th  he  notes  : — 

Lambeth. — Herkomer  began  to  paint.  Terribly  fatiguing  work 
to  sit  and  be  entertained  by  a  man  who  is  thinking  of  something 
else  all  the  time — fits  of  drowse  and  vivacity  come  alternately  in 
mere  despair  of  the  situation.     Herkomer  is  a  very  able  man. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  this  portrait  was 
repainted,  making  Mr  Herkomer's  third  picture :  though 
admirable  in  many  ways  it  hardly  does  the  Archbishop 
justice. 

On  the  1 8th  the  Archbishop  opened  a  Workmen's  Club 
at  the  Oxford  House,  and  spoke  on  recreation,  intemperance, 
and  early  marriage:  he  notes  : — 

Opened  the  Workmen's  Club  at  the  Oxford  House.  A  most 
interesting  meeting — various  speeches.  It  was  quite  affecting  to 
see  their  regard  for  the  Bishop  of  Bedford  \  They  scarcely  could 
listen  to  him  without  applause  accompanying  him  like  a  rolling 
drum,  and  when  he  spoke  of  his  sorrow  at  leaving  them  there 
was  quite  a  scene. 

A  large  ballroom  close  to  the  club  has  been  acquired  and  is 
actually  used  as  a  ballroom.  Admission  is  by  ticket  only  to 
members  and  friends.  They  say  the  one  marked  characteristic  of 
1  Dr  Walsham  How,  Bishop  of  Wakefield,   1888— 1897. 


202  WELLINGTON   COLLEGE   MISSION         aet.  58 

the  ballroom  behaviour  of  the  labourers,  costermongers,  etc.,  with 
wives  and  daughters,  is  their  extreme  propriety  and  punctiliousness. 
The  only  difficulty  is  getting  men  enough  to  live  there.  The  living 
itself  at  Oxford  House  and  their  associations  with  the  people  are 
most  richly  rewarded.  The  two  woes  of  Bethnal  Green  are  Drink 
and  Early  Marriage. 

Self-restraint  is  a  law  which  their  betters  have  come  to,  and  so 
surely  can  they.  Their  temptations  are  not  really  greater  to  any 
vast  extent.  They  listened  very  patiently  to  this  doctrine,  and 
applauded  it,  and  were  all  evidently  not  displeased  at  one's  coming. 

Of  Convocation  which  met  from  Feb.  26th  to  30th  he 

notes  : — 

Convocation  to  Friday.  Cujus  si  monumentum  requiris — 
requiras. 

On  the  loth  March  he  opened  the  new  Mission  building 
of  the  Wellington  College  Mission  at  Walworth.  He 
spoke  with  great  affection  of  Wellington,  "  that  noble  house 
in  the  midst  of  its  breezy  wilderness,  with  its  fir-trees,  its 
great  open  spaces,  its  fresh  air  racing  over  the  heath."  And 
he  made  a  touching  allusion  to  the  death'  of  the  Emperor 
William,  "  strong  in  will,  in  thought,  in  tenderness  and  in 
faith." 

On  the  nth  he  attended  at  Whitehall  Chapel,  in  the 
absence  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  The  Prince  and  Princess 
of  Wales,  with  their  children,  and  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Denmark  were  present^ 

To  tJie  Dean  of  Windsor. 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

March  12th,  1888. 
Most  private. 

Dearest  Dean, 

It  does  seem  unnatural  that  we  should  not  move  our 
people  to  pray  for  TpaytKojraTos^  Emperor — when  was  any  man 
before  in  such  a  position? 

1  On  March  9,  1888. 

^  The   loth  was  the  25th  anniversary  of  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales.  ^  Most  tragical. 


1 888  LETTERS— PASTORAL   STAVES  203 

I  despair  of  Prelacy — it  recks  nothing  of  the  Nation  or 
Mankind.  Diocesan  Episcopacy  will  be  reduced  to  the  level 
of  Diocesan  Inspectorship. 

S.  Wilberforce  will  be  the  Execration  of  the  Church  of  the 
Future  for  two  things,  (i)  The  shortened  service,  (2)  The  "New 
Type  "  of  Bishop.  But  he  had  far  too  much  sense  to  be  himself 
the  "new  type."  His  crime  was  the  misleading  of  his  weak 
little  brothers. 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

Edw.  C. 

To  the  Dean  of  Windsor. 

March,  1888. 

The  Bishop  of  X wants  to  know  whether  he  is  to  carry 

his  pastoral  staff  in  the  Conference  Procession  !  He  says  it  is  a 
very  nice  one  !  Some  sort  of  rules  will  have  to  be  made  about 
such  things  ! 

I  should  have  thought  the  non-baculate  Bps  who  at  present 
must  be  the  majority,  would  be  very  indignant  at  any  who  appeared 
cTTt  a-Kij-rrTpoLcnv  ipaSoinevoL  \  Also,  though  in  these  days  it  is  an 
argument  which  I  feel  ashamed  to  advance,  I  thought  ancient 
Church  usage  forbade  people  to  carry  staves  in  others'  dioceses — I 
may  be  mistaken,  and  at  any  rate  no  one  would  listen  to  anything 
so  feeble.     But  the  former  point  would  win. 

I  think  a  rule  which  forbade  staves  to  be  carried  would  be  a 
recognition  of  their  existence — and  I  should  probably  be  prose- 
cuted in  my  own  Court  for  it  by  the  Jiock  and  Colonel".  I  should 
think  it  better  to  say  to  each  aspirant  "the  Church  is  not  quite 
ripe."     This  would  please  them  too. 

He  writes : — 

March  31.  Rode  with  Maggie  and  Hugh  from  Lambeth  to 
Addington  in  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes.  Found  that  Ferguson, 
our  clever  old  carpenter,  has  fitted  up  the  Chapel  perfectly  with 
the  new  seats,  and  the  old  rails  from  Maidstone  church  for  stall 
backs.  These  beautiful  rails  had  been  rejected  by  Pearson  I  from 
All  Saints,  Maidstone,  in  favour  of  new-fangled  brass  and  were 
waiting  to  become  firewood  when  I  begged  them  ! 

^  Leaning  on  their  staves. 

2  Captain  Cobham,  of  the  Church  Association,  is  probably  intended. 


204  DOMESTIC   CHAPLAINCY  aet.  58 

Now  with  Juxon's  rails  similarly  lying  for  lumber  at  Lambeth 
fitted  into  the  screen,  this  once  miserable  chapel  gets  an  old 
world  look  of  dignity  which  we  must  carry  yet  further — please 
God! 

May  He  avert  the  confiscating  "  faithful  laity  "  from  this  home. 
Its  peace  and  silence  begin  always  to  heal  the  dreadful  tears  and 
rents  all  London  makes  in  everything  like  spiritual  iiyteta^. 

To  the  Rev.  A.  H.  Baynes^,  who  was  hesitating  about 
accepting  the  offer  of  a  Domestic  Chaplaincy  from  the 
Archbishop,  he  writes  : — 

It  is  a  very  serious  undertaking  of  a  unique  piece  of  church- 
work — a  unique  kind  of  service — and  we  need  deliberateness,  and 
real  prayer,  and  trust  in  the  Guidance  to  be  received. 

There  is  one  point  of  your  letter  as  to  which  I  am  not  quite 
sure  that  you  have  the  facts  fully  before  you.  There  is  no 
husbandry  without  what  a  selfish  or  self-seeking  man  calls  and 
feels  to  be  drudgery.  The  more  ideal  such  work  becomes  on  one 
side  the  more  irksome  is  some  other  side  sure  to  be.  The  more 
spiritual  (or  intellectual  even)  the  work  laid  on  us,  the  more  does 
God  take  care  that  we  shall  not  forget  that  we  have  the  Treasure 
Iv  uKi.v(.(jiv  6arpaKLvoL<;  ^  If  we  persist,  He  no  doubt  lets  us  have 
our  way  generally,  and  then  the  spirituality  of  our  work  is  ruined 
by  the  undisciplinedness  of  the  spirit  which  despised  "  the  day  of 
small  things."  All  this  you  know,  but  to  apply  it  to  the  Chaplaincy 
— the  junior  chaplain  and  the  lay  secretary  will  of  course  take  the 
large  share  of  mechanical  work,  but  not  only  will  it  need  directing 
and  looking  over  with  precision,  but  also  if  the  Senior  Chaplain 
were  not  himself  to  take  any  part  in  details,  "give  a  hand"  to 
even  mechanical  parts,  of  course  they  would  despise  and  do  badly 
what  he  would  "not  touch  with  one  of  his  fingers." 

I  have  written  out  what  appears  to  me  to  be  that  part  of  the 
work  which  would  be  the  least  ideal,  or  agreeable  to  the  flesh. 
I  want  to  present  it  in  its  hardest  lines.  It  is  impossible  that  the 
principal  person  in  a  department  could  evade  any  responsibility 
for  anything  which  was  under  him.  The  head  could  never  say 
"  It's  no  business  of  mine."     He  is  the  person  who  presents  it 

1  Soundness,  health. 

*  Now  Bishop  of  Natal. 

*  "In  earthen  vessels,"  2  Cor.  iv.  7. 


i888  DRUDGERY  205 

done,  and  repairs  any  slip  made  below  him.  I  do  not  myself 
think  there  is  anything  to  either  shun  or  be  afraid  of  or  despise — 
nothing  which  I  have  not  done  and  would  not  do  again  for  chiefs  or 
equals  or  helpers  with  utter  good  will  and  affection.  A  Bishop 
(from  the  distractions  and  interruptions  and  cross-engagements 
which  beset  him)  does  no  doubt  want  a  "  deal  of  looking  after." 
Sometimes  it  would  be  one  chaplain,  sometimes  another.  But 
there  is  one  responsibility. 

"Drudgery"  so  called  formed  much  of  my  life  as  Headmaster 
of  Wellington— more  at  Lincoln  in  some  respects,  less  in  others— 
much  more  at  Truro — and  incomparably  more  now. 

I  think  that  Wordsworth's  two  lines  about  Milton  contain  the 
spirit  perfectly  in  which  working  churchmen  must  live — all  their 
peace,  almost  their  salvation,  depends  on  it.  I  have  realised  it 
most  badly,  but  I  can  say  that  those  two  lines  have  been  full  of 
strength  to  me  these  thirty  years. 

"  Thy  soul  was  as  a  star  and  dwelt  apart 

and  yet  thy  soul 

The  lowliest  duties  on  herself  did  lay." 

I  have  put  down  I  think  the  whole  case  at  its  worst.  May 
Easter  thoughts  help  us. 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

You  understand  how  every  analysis  looks  vastly  more  formid- 
able on  paper,  and  how  smoothly  after  all  the  longest  string  runs 
off  the  reel. 

E.  C. 

On  April  ist,  Easter  Day,  the  Archbishop  writes,  at 
Addington  : — 

The  sun  made  a  generous  effort  at  honouring  the  day.  But 
the  east  wind  is  not  to  be  melted.  The  trees  are  as  budless  and 
black  as  we  left  them.  The  finest  elm  of  the  garden  has  been 
blown  down  and  lies  in  three  huge  fractures.  The  grass  yields 
no  feed.  The  birds  have  not  paired  or  built.  The  swans  are 
fierce  though  they  will  just  feed  from  one's  hand — only  a  few 
goldfish  can  be  tempted  out  from  under  the  stones,  and  they 
lazily  turn  after  crumbs  but  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  eat  them. 
A  single  sparrow   solitarily   haunted   my   dressing-room  window 


2o6  VISIT   TO    WALMER  aet.  58 

cornice  with  feathers  all  bunched  up,  and  down  all  rough,  cheeping 
lustily  but  answered  by  no  mate — where  his  fellows  generally  sit 
in  rows  in  a  morning.  It  is  all  like  the  discomfort  of  men  in 
general,  the  poor  law  not  evenly  administered,  the  oppression  of 
the  Sweating  System,  the  impoverishment  of  landowners  through 
agricultural  depression,  of  clergy  through  withholding  of  tithes, 
of  charities  through  the  "conversion"  of  consols.  All  things 
want  some  good  warm  rays  of  Him  "  who  sends  prosperity  " — but 
still  more  our  Missions,  our  laity,  our  starving  spiritual  fields  need 
some  brightness.  Would  that  we  could  ourselves  receive  and  at 
least  reflect  some.  Would  I  were  less  unworthy  of  this  day  and 
its  incredible  joy.  May  He  strengthen  me  to  do  some  fragments 
of  my  undertaken  work. 

The  thought  of  the  heroic  sutTering  emperor  ought  to  be  with 
everyone  who  has  a  duty  or  function  to  discharge. 

Let  me  remember  after  all  that  it  was  the  tomb  that  was  empty 
of  Christ,  and  not  the  world.  He  is  somewhere  about  in  this 
garden  if  I  could  find  Him. 

On  April  4th  he  writes : — 

Law's  Serious  Call  helping  me  to  realise  how  much  my 
work  is  spoiled  as  Service  and  Sacrifice  by  my  feeling  its  burden 
too  much  by  far. 

On  the  same  day  he  went  on  a  visit  to  Walmer,  to 
Lord  Granville  :  he  writes  : — 

April  c^th.  Walmer  Castle.  Came  yesterday  to  stay  here — 
with  perfections  of  hosts — both  themselves  and  their  children. 

Lord  Granville  was  as  ever  not  overflowing  with,  for  that 
would  be  a  vice,  but  just  and  always  brimming  with  kind  and 
polished  pleasantness,  full  of  French  sayings  and  stories  of 
politicians  and  historic  beings  of  which  I  wish  I  could  remember 
any  to  write  down  with  his  accuracy.  "Yes,"  he  said  of  Lady 
Hester  Stanhope,  "I  sometimes  wonder  what  /should  have  been 
like  if  she  had  married  my  father  when  she  proposed  to  him." 

We  saw  of  course  the  Duke's  room  in  its  severity.  The 
drawing  and  dining  rooms  were  built  by  Pitt — and  a  little  slip  of 
a  room  off  the  drawing-room  where  Pitt  and  Nelson  were  very 
convivial. 


i888  THE   SWEATING    COMMISSION  207 

On  the  13th  of  April  he  writes  about  the  Sweating 
Commission  which  was  occupying  his  mind  very  greatly  : — 

April  1 2,th.  Sweating  Committee  H.  of  Lords.  Human  beings 
cannot  subsist  under  much  worse  conditions  than  we  have  seen  as 
well  as  heard  of  to-day.  One  man  had  been  a  teacher  in  Hungary, 
came  to  England  because  he  thought  he  should  be  better  off,  has  been 
a  boot  finisher  for  ten  years.  He  described  minutely  every  one  of 
some  20  or  30  operations  performed  by  one  man,  on  every  pair  of 
worthless  boots  "which  melt  in  rain  on  Kaffirs'  feet."  A  dozen 
pair  take  7  hours  to  do  and  the  pay  the  men  get  is  two  shillings 
for  that — the  "  knifer  "  gets  other  two  shillings.  For  three  months, 
April  to  June,  they  work  from  5  in  the  morning  or  6  until  mid- 
night and  past.  The  master  gives  a  cup  of  coffee  in  the  morning, 
of  tea  at  night.  They  buy  their  "dinner,"  a  lump  of  stale  bread. 
Their  meals  they  eat  as  they  work.  They  work  in  the  "knifer's" 
living  room,  "the  air  is  bad  but  the  heat  is  pleasant  to  the  poor." 
This  is  a  skilled  man.  The  next  was  a  Russian  Jew,  a  month  in 
England,  5  years  a  soldier,  not  suffered  to  live  at  Kiev  where  he 
was  born  because  there  were  too  many  Jews.  He  worked  a 
month  for  nothing,  as  did  another  we  saw,  and  paid  5/-  to  the 
master.  They  get  about  15/-  a  week  in  the  busy  time,  working 
always  18  hours  a  day  and  even  more.  The  last  man  had  come 
from  Odessa,  a  peasant,  "  he  would  not  serve  the  Russian  Czar." 
Their  language  a  mixture  of  Hebrew,  Russ  and  Polish ;  Lord 
Rothschild  interpreted  a  good  deal  for  us  and  was  most  kind  in 
tone  and  manner  to  these  poor  things.  Anything  more  sad,  more 
abject,  more  dirty,  more  gentle  in  manner,  and  more  hopeless  in 
tone,  I  have  never  seen.  There  are  many  thousands  of  these 
people — no  Englishman  (not  one,  as  far  as  Arnold  White  has 
seen)  does  any  of  this  work.  It  is  all  done  by  foreign  Jews  :  they 
send  what  they  can  abroad  to  their  wives  and  children,  and  save 
up  to  bring  them  over.  We  hear  to-day  that  45,000  Jews  are 
ordered  out  of  Odessa.  Where  are  they  to  descend?  A 
tremendous  political  engine  is  thus  being  prepared  among  us. 
For  take  away  their  work  and  their  wretched  bread,  and  what  can 
they  do  ?  But  to  close  ports  against  misery  because  it  is  misery  is 
what  England  is  not  capable  of 

This  is  a  seething  abyss  of  human  wretchedness.  It  makes 
one  more  amazed  than  ever  at  the  world's  very  existence.  The 
members  of  the  Committee  seem  to  me  half  aghast  at  the  very 
thought  of  finding  a  remedy. 


2o8  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   WORDSWORTH         aet.  58 

On  the  20th  he  writes  : — 

Lambeth.  The  first  "quiet  day"  I  believe  held  for  Bishops 
of  Church  of  England — a  day  of  united  devotion  and  meditation. 
About  15  Bishops  attended  including  some  from  the  Colonies. 
We  had  Holy  Communion  at  9.15,  Matins  at  11,  Litany  at  2.30, 
Evensong  at  4.  An  address  at  each  by  E.  C.\  Bp  of  London, 
Bp  of  Bangor,  Bp  of  Gloster  and  Bristol — on  the  encourage- 
ment to  our  daily  work  to  be  derived  from  the  thought  of  our 
Commission,  His  Presence,  and  His  Return.  Mine  was  a  little 
introduction  to  the  three  others :  the  day  was,  I  think,  filled  with 
a  quiet  sense  of  blessing  in  brotherliness  and  of  Christ's  Brother- 
hood felt  in  it.  The  very  silent  praying  in  the  Chapel  was  very 
touching  to  me.  Even  a  very  few  years  ago  how  impossible  it 
would  have  seemed.  The  Bp  of  Gloster  said  he  belonged  to  an 
earlier  epoch  and  did  not  well  understand  it,  but  he  wished  to 
throw  himself  into  what  seemed  to  others  so  helpful.  His  words 
were  helpful. 

On  May  13th  he  notes: — 

Bp  Wordsworth's  Life  a  disappointment.  Not  a  life  but  a 
record.  Gives  no  touch  of  the  tender,  intimate,  delicate  sentiment 
which  was  always  in  play  on  face,  lips  and  manner  with  his  inmost 
friends.  It  was  lovely  in  him  that  he  made  his  own  all  that  was 
suggested  and  laid  out  before  him  about  Cathedral  life  and  work, 
the  Scholae,  the  retreats  before  Ordination,  the  Novate  Novale 
(and  its  very  name)  &c.,  &c. — but  he,  while  he  so  pressed  all  that 
charmed  him  forward,  was  never  weary  of  saying,  "  Your  plan 
this,"  "  Your  work  so  and  so," — but  the  book  bluntly  puts  down 
all  these  things  and  other  things  to  him  as  inventor,  and  omits 
both  the  gracefulness  of  his  adoption  and  the  graciousness  of  his 
ceaseless  acknowledgments.  It  does  not  mention  either  that  he 
made  me  his  Chancellor — the  honour  which  of  all  honours  I  did 
and  do  look  on  as  most  delightsome. 

On  May  20th  he  says  : — 

Whiisun  Day.  The  great  festivals  seem  always  to  come 
round  with  special  trial  and  disappointment.  I  have  spoiled  my 
peace  of  mind  and  that  of  others,  for  many  days  to  come,  by  a 
just  displeasure  pushed  too  far. 

The  day  has  been  most  lovely.     The  night  lovelier.     A  beau- 

^  I.e.  Ed.   Cantuar. 


1888  REREDOS   OF   ST   PAUL'S  209 

tiful  moon  hanging,  and  most  brilliant  stars  seeming  instinct  with 
life,  in  a  sky  of  blue  blackness,  the  trees  (which  an  hour  ago 
showed  every  feather  against  a  liquid  clearness)  are  a  deep  black 
bank  against  it.  The  nightingale  is  hurrying  and  lingering  alter- 
nately in  his  passion  of  delight,  and  the  night-jar  fills  up  his 
intervals  with  the  softest  purring.  Who  would  think  the  world, 
or  any  heart,  would  be  as  unquiet  as  it  is? 

Fred  with  us.  Introduced  him  to  Jeremy  Taylor  and  the 
Liberty  of  Prophesying — to  his  delight.     A  dear  boy. 

Tried  to  think  over  some  plan  again  and  again  for  a  sermon 
in  Westminster  to  the  Anglican  Bishops  of  the  world :  fell  asleep 
again  and  again  at  the  greatness  of  the  subject.  It  simply  crushed 
in  the  littleness  of  my  soul  whenever  I  looked  at  it. 

On  May  26th  he  writes  : — 

Bishop  of  London's  reply  to  the  memorialists  who  remonstrate 
foolishly  against  the  reredos  of  St  Paul's  as  idolatrous,  and  petition 
him  to  have  a  case  heard  in  my  court.  He  declines,  but  I  think 
argues  rather  too  much  in  declining.  Unreasonable  people  must 
have  their  unreason  negatived — but  neither  they  nor  the  reasonable 
ones  are  gratified  or  forwarded  by  reasons.  They  are  necessary 
to  you,  but  unnecessary  and  distasteful  to  others'. 

On  June  3rd  he  writes  : — 

Did  a  good  piece  towards  my  Conference  Sermon  lying  on 
grass  under  lilacs  and  irises.  Perhaps  such  contact  with  earth 
will  evolve  something  natural.  Delicious  Summer  day.  Perfectly 
clear  even  here.     Great  heat  in  shade. 

The  most  gorgeous  sunset  with  crimson  and  scarlet  of  a  most 
unusual  lustre.  Sky  line  of  Houses  of  Parliament  and '  Abbey 
themselves  quite  dark. 

Has  been  tremendous  week's  work  with  business  crammed 
into  every  interstice  of  engagements — and  next  week  worse. 
Impone  quod  velis,  addas  sane  intellectum. 

1  There  was  a  long  litigation  in  reference  to  this.  Action  was  taken  under 
the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Act  to  have  the  reredos  removed  on  the 
ground  that  it  tended  to  encourage  superstitious  ideas  and  devotions.  Bishop 
Temple  vetoed  the  proceedings  partly  on  the  ground  that  a  substantially 
similar  reredos  (as  he  considered)  had  been  sanctioned  at  Exeter,  partly 
because  litigation  would  embitter  men's  feelings  and  inflict  mischief  on  the 
Church.  The  majority  of  the  Queen's  Bench  were  for  granting  a  mandamus, 
but  the  Lords  ultimately  held  (1891)  that  the  Bishop's  discretion  was  absolute. 

B.  II.  14 


2IO  VISIT   TO    CAMBRIDGE  aet.  58 

On  June  4th  he  says  : — 

Vanderbilt  came  to  see  Lambeth  to-day — pleasant,  and  a  good 
churchman  and  interested  in  everything— a  fine  open  face.  But 
what  a  system  which  throws  wealth  about  in  such  ways.  I  hope 
he  understands  it  all. 

On  June  8th  he  visited  Cambridge  ;  he  writes  : — 

Dined  in  the  Hall  at  Trinity  with  the  eminences  who  are  to 
have  honorary  degrees  to-morrow.  Salisbury's  speech  most  able, 
and  Rosebery's  very  clever.  Balfour's  that  of  a  tired  man. 
Westcott  said  that  there  was  only  one  word  in  all  the  speeches 
which  gave  him  any  comfort:  that  was  "spiritual"  in  my  speech. 
(I  spoke  of  the  Novus  Homo  adopted  into  a  House  with  such  a 
Jus  Imagiman — "intellectual  and  spiritual  ancestry.")  But  that 
there  was  only  ojie  I  stand  reproved  more  than  they  in  whose 
there  was  none.  The  Master  was  most  happy  and  exquisite  in 
all  his  tones  and  touches.  He  alluded  to  my  George  Herbert 
Declamation  in  the  Hall  in  1851,  which  of  course  touched  me, 
and  he  touched  all  others  in  the  same  ways. 

June  <)th.  Old  bedmakers  and  porters,  quite  charming  old 
friendships.  Slept  on  the  old  familiar  staircase  in  Harcourt's 
rooms,  next  door  to  my  dearest  "  Old  Martin's  " — so  strange  to 
think  what  a  friend  the  unfriended  boy  found,  and  what  it  has 
all  led  to  in  God's  ever-near  providences  :  qui  pavit  me  a  juventute 
mea  usque  ad  banc  horam.  Breakfasted  sitting  by  the  Chancellor. 
The  venerable  old  Duke ',  with  his  abundant  white  hair  and  bushy 
eyebrows  and  keen  aged  face,  was  very  bright  and  full  of  memories 
— afterwards  sitting  in  the  Arts  Schools,  with  his  Chancellor's 
Robes,  on  a  low  chair,  slightly  bent,  he  was  the  most  magnificent 
and  picturesque  old  form  imaginable.  The  scarlet  of  the  Doctors 
round  him  threw  him  into  beautiful  relief,  with  his  Garter,  and 
his  black  gown  auro  lita.  Westcott  said  he  saw  "  Generations  " 
in  his  face. 

Ju7ie  15.  My  evcrxvH-ovi's^,  how  much  I  owe  them  and  this 
service  !  T/ie  green  pasture  in  this  wilderness  of  dry  work.  Chapel 
more  than  full,  and  the  air  more  than  ever  charged  with  aspiration. 
God  bring  it  all  to  good  effect.  My  last  address  to  them  this 
year. 

June  i6i/i.     As  we  rode  out  under  Morton's  Tower,  saw  about 

^  Duke  of  Devonshire.  ^  My  gracious  ladies. 


1888      DEATH    OF   THE    EMPEROR    FREDERICK      211 

100  men  collected  on  pavement.  Found  they  were  Church  of 
England  Working  Men's  Society — turned  back  and  went  to  Chapel 
with  them,  showed  them  how  the  list  of  Archbishops  was  a 
symbol  of  continuity,  the  windows  thrice  restored  a  symbol  of  the 
Church's  springs  of  recovery,  the  history  of  Parker's  consecration 
service  a  sign  of  comprehensiveness.  Then  we  had  some  collects, 
creed,  and  hymn  at  their  request — a  very  delightful  hour.  I 
happened  to  use  the  expression  "  this  place  is  very  dear  to  me," 
when  one  of  them  exclaimed,  "and  so  it  is  to  us." 

The  Queen  to  the  A^-chbishop. 
{Death  of  the  Emperor  Frederick.) 

Windsor  Castle. 

June  22,   1888. 

The  Queen  wishes  to  express  her  most  sincere  thanks  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  for  his  very  kind  letter. 

The  contrast  between  this  year  and  the  last  Jubilee  one,  is 
most  painful  and  remarkable.  Who  could  have  thought  that  that 
splendid,  noble,  knightly  prince — as  good  as  he  was  brave  and 
noble — who  was  the  admiration  of  all,  would  on  the  very  day 
year — (yesterday)  be  no  longer  in  this  world  !  His  loss  is  indeed 
a  very  mysterious  dispensation,  for  it  is  such  a  very  dreadful  public 
as  well  as  private  misfortune. 

The  Queen  mourns  a  very  dear  Son  and  her  poor  dear  Child's 
life  is  blighted  and  crushed,  and  she  has  lost  the  best  and  kindest 
and  most  devoted  of  Husbands  !  She  is  not  ill,  but  her  grief — 
the  Queen  hears  and  sees  from  her  heartbroken  letters — is  intense. 

On  the  25th  the  Archbishop  writes  : — 

A  good  long  chat  with  Lord  Carnarvon  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
until  long  after  everyone  was  gone.  He  wants  a  letter,  signed  by 
many  influential  laity  and  others,  urging  clergy  to  open  churches 
a  certain  time  each  day.  Very  strong  on  the  importance  of  the 
best  men  going  to  the  Colonies — such  as  Sydney  and  Melbourne- — 
and  stayitig  there. 

The  English  Church  in  Australia  tends  as  in  America  to 
become  the  Church  of  the  Respectables.  The  Roman  Catholics 
strongly  impress  the  visitors.  Their  churches,  schools  and  convents 
are  in  every  best  site.  At  the  Governor's  Garden  Party  the  Cardinals 
and  the  Bishops  and  the  Clergy  are  numerous  and   impressive. 

14—2 


212  LAMBETH  CONFERENCE— REV.  M.  FOWLER  aet.  58 

We  have  one  Bishop  to  represent  us.     When  Bishop  Perry  went 
to  Melbourne  he  returned  the  R.  C.  Bishop's  card  in  an  envelope. 

The  Rev.  Montague  Fowler  writes  : — 

Among  the  many  opportunities  which  a  residence  of  five  years 
as  domestic  Chaplain,  and  the  constant  daily  and  hourly  inter- 
course, with  Archbishop  Benson  afforded  me  of  becoming 
acquainted  with  his  striking  character  and  unique  personality,  the 
Lambeth  Conference  of  1888  left  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
and  lasting  impression  on  my  mind. 

Without  holding  any  official  position  in  connection  with  the 
Conference,  I  was  permitted  to  be  present  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  the  Sessions,  distributing  the  letters  and  documents  that 
were  incessantly  pouring  in  for  the  145  Bishops  who  attended, 
and  collecting  information  and  statistics  when  required. 

The  impressions  then  formed  under  peculiarly  favourable 
conditions,  have  remained  indelibly  stamped  on  my  memory. 
They  showed  forth  in  bold  relief  an  exceptional  combination  of 
characteristics.  In  every  utterance,  not  only  the  mature  know- 
ledge of  the  scholar  was  apparent  but  the  spiritual  sympathy  of  a 
Father  in  Israel ;  in  the  guidance  of  the  discussions  was  traceable 
the  master-mind  of  the  statesman  ;  while  the  strong  catholicity  of 
the  Archbishop  was  responsible  for  the  impetus  then  given  to  the 
spirit  of  Anglican  federation. 

Combined  with  these  qualities  which  so  essentially  fitted  him 
to  occupy  the  Chair  of  St  Augustine,  was  the  genial  and  kindly 
manner,  and  the  irresistibly  attractive  bearing  towards  those  who 
were  both  technically  and  in  reality  his  guests.  He  won  in  a 
moment  the  hearts  of  the  American  and  Colonial  Bishops  and 
their  families,  whom  he  entertained  at  Lambeth,  just  as  he  was 
wont  to  win  the  hearts  of  that  inner  circle  who  were  privileged  to 
see  the  patient  care  and  intense  devotion  with  which  he  discharged 
his  never-ceasing  duties,  whether  they  were  the  narrower  minutiae 
of  Diocesan  work  or  the  wider  care  of  all  the  Churches. 

On  June  30th  the  Third  Lambeth  Conference,  attended 
by  145  Bishops,  was  received  at  Canterbury. 
The  Archbishop  writes  in  his  Diary : — 

We  had  a  magnificent  reception  at  Canterbury.  A  very 
interesting  gathering  first  at  St  Augustine's  for  luncheon  in  the 
crypt  under  the  library.     The  walls  and  pillars  stand  in  the  very 


i888  LAMBETH   CONFERENCE  213 

spots  and  lines  of  some  old  ambulatory.  The  Americans  liked 
to  be  told  of  the  ancient  power  of  the  Abbots. 

The  arrangements  in  the  Cathedral  were  beautiful — and  Lord 
Northbourne,  a  very  sharp  and  experienced  old  critic  of  such 
things,  said,  "  It  is  simply  the  most  impressive  thing  I  have  ever 
beheld."  First  I  was  taken  by  Dean  and  Chapter  to  West  Doors 
inside  Nave.  Doors  were  opened,  and  100  Bishops  entered  in 
double  file,  dividing  to  right  and  left  as  we  greeted  each  other,  and 
passing  up  the  Nave  and  the  great  steps  of  the  Screen,  and  so  into 
the  Choir,  the  Minor  Canons  and  singing-men  and  choir-boys 
standing  in  three  lines — two  wings  and  one  central  line  on  the 
steps,  and  singing  all  the  time  the  procession  was  going  up — we 
turned  and  followed  and  went  up  the  lower  flight  of  the  sanctuary 
steps,  and  there  was  placed  the  great  grey  "Chair  of  Augustine"; 
when  I  reached  it  we  knelt  in  silence  and  then  stood  and  sang  Te 
Deum  gloriously,  the  whole  Choir  and  Aisles  full  of  people,  as 
well  as  the  Aisles  of  the  Nave,  and  the  Bishops  standing  Choir- 
wise  on  the  steps — the  Chapter  about  the  Altar — and  my  ten 
chaplains  round  and  behind  the  Chair  with  the  beautiful  primatial 
Cross.  Then  I  sate  and  gave  them  a  short  address  exhorting  all 
to  obey  the  Church  and  not  themselves,  if  they  wished  any  loyalty 
to  be  left  in  the  Church.  Then  to  Vespers,  I  going  down  to  the 
Throne — and  we  prayed  and  praised  God  if  men  ever  did.  Then 
a  great  gathering  of  all  in  the  Deanery  Garden,  and  then  back  to 
Lambeth.     The  Dean  and  Canons  most  brotherly. 

After  giving  the  Benediction  in  the  Choir  I  gave  it  again  to 
the  vast  crowds  in  the  Nave  from  the  steps  of  the  Screen.  It  was 
wonderful  to  see  them  kneel  all  at  once  on  the  floor.  God  grant 
their  sweet  prayers  and  trust. 

On  July  2nd  and  5th  he  writes  with  reference  to  the 
same  subject : — 

July  2nd.  Lambeth  Conference.  In  Westminster  Abbey  a 
service  in  some  ways  more  impressive  than  at  Canterbury  itself. 
The  Chapter  and  the  Bishops  occupied  every  part  of  the  Choir 
and  the  Chaplains  the  square  beneath  the  Tower.  Metropolitans 
the  Sanctuary.  I  preached  for  three  quarters  of  an  hour — but 
such  was  the  interest  of  the  event  that  it  kept  people  awake  and 
still  in  the  most  marvellous  way  and  gave  me  an  opportunity — 
which  I  wish  I  had  been  worthy  worthily  to  take. — I  continued  to 
press  the  Church  to  keep  its  Diocesan  centres  very  strong,  not 


214  LAMBETH    CONFERENCE  aet.  58 

comminuting  their  resources,  not  reducing  the  size  of  the  Dioceses 
so  that  the  strong  influence  of  each  ceases  to  radiate  through  all. 
Then  I  pressed  extension  of  organisation, — new  religious  orders 
free  from  the  snares  of  the  past,  in  intimate  connexion  vnih 
dioceses — and  thirdly  to  hold  no  work  true  which  is  not  absolutely 
spiritual  work.  If  God  give  us  grace  to  work  these  three  things 
out,  His  Church  will  not  lose  strength  the  next  few  years. 

The  next  day,  before  the  Conference  opened,  the 
assembled  Bishops  received  the  Communion  in  Lambeth 
Chapel.  The  Chapel  was  filled, — it  was  barely  possible  to 
find  seats  for  all — and  the  repetition  of  the  Nicene  Creed, 
said  not  sung  as  elsewhere,  with  intense  earnestness  by 
Bishops  of  the  Reformed  Church  drawn  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  was  a  witness  to  the  reality  of  the  Anglican 
Communion  which  could  not  easily  be  forgotten.  The 
Diary  continues : — 

July  5.  Conference  continued  and  very  interesting  and  grow- 
ing in  interest.  The  speaking  very  good  and  lively.  The  Bishop 
of  Western  New  York'  exceedingly  witty  as  well  as  true  and  good. 
It  was  singular  that  (in  the  opening  debate)  on  the  subject  of 
"  Mutual  Relations  of  Dioceses  and  Branches  of  the  Anglican 
Communion,"  no  English  and  no  American  Bishop  spoke. 

I  opened  the  Conference  by  pointing  out  that  the  Conference 
was  in  no  sense  a  Synod  and  not  adapted,  or  competent,  or 
within  its  powers,  if  it  should  attempt  to  make  binding  decisions 
on  doctrines  or  discipline — the  unsuitableness  to  the  constitution 
of  our  Church — and  to  its  relation  to  America — the  fact  that  they 
had  been  foreseen  and  settled  by  Abps  Longley  and  Tait  in  their 
addresses,  etc. 

On  the  7th  of  July  the  first  report  of  the  Executive 
Committee  as  to  the  progress  of  the  Church  House  was 
received. 

On  July   nth  he  writes: — 

Long  talk  with  Dean  of  Windsor  de  rebus  existentibus,  things 
as  they  are.  A  "welcome"  to  the  Bishops  given  at  C.M.S., 
Salisbury  Square — a  very  good  tone  prevalent,  inclinable  toward 

^  A.   Cleveland  Coxe,  D.D. 


VISIT   TO   HIGHCLERE 


215 


episcopacy  tempered  by  Committee,  instead  of  Committee  un- 
tempered.  The  really  spiritual  prayerful  tone  of  this  Society 
enables  them  to  prevail  against  their  own  prejudices. 

The  Lambeth  Conference  spent  some  days  in  debates 
by  selected  speakers  on  the  appointed  subjects,  which  were 
then  referred  to  Committees  ;  during  the  next  fortnight 
these  Committees  sat,  and  reports  were  drawn  up  ;  they 
assembled  again  towards  the  end  of  July  to  receive  and 
discuss  the  reports,  and  to  frame  resolutions  on  such  as 
were  approved  by  the  Conference.  A  stately  concluding 
service  was  held  at  St  Paul's  at  the  end  of  July. 

At  the  close  of  the  Conference  the  Archbishop  left 
London  after  an  exhausting  Session.  He  and  Mrs  Benson 
paid  a  visit  to  Lord  Carnarvon  at  Highclere;  the  Arch- 
bishop wrote   in  his  Diary : — 

July  2gth.  One  has  nowadays  great  heartaches  in  these 
glorious  homes,  with  their  strong  heads,  real  pillars  of  the  civilisa- 
tion that  now  is,  and  their  most  delicate  stately  women,  and 
children  whose  sweet  proud  curves  of  feature  show  the  making 
of  many  generations  and  readiness  for  responsibility  from  almost 
tender  years  ; — are  all  these  glories  going  to  keep  together  ?  If  not 
how  will  they  go  down  ?  by  brute  force,  or  by  silent  self-exilings  ? 
As  a  rule  they  do  not  deserve  to  be  removed — and  some,  like  this, 
are  centres  of  such  KaXoKayaOia^  as  the  maker  of  that  fine  word 
had  no  idea  of,  any  more  than  Handel  could  have  imagined  his 
Messiah  with  two  thousand  tuneable  voices. 

But  if  they  give  up  the  Church — if  they  do  not  perceive  that 
she  is  England — (all  the  more  because  of  non-conformity  to  make 
her  realise) — then  these  homes  and  families  which  are  the  first 
product  will  go.  Perhaps  the  Church  will  have  nothing  to  say  to 
that,  but  if  she  goes,  they  will  not  linger  a  moment. 

In  August  the  Queen  wrote  to  him  on  the  subject  of 
the  Lambeth  Conference. 

^  A  word  for  which  there  is  no  exact  equivalent  in  English,  implying 
outward  beauty  of  form  combined  with  inward  nobleness  of  spirit. 


2i6  LETTER   FROM   THE    QUEEN  aet.  59 

The  Queen  to  the  Archbishop. 

Osborne. 
Aug.  18,  1888. 

The  Queen  thanks  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  very  much 
for  his  kind  letter  giving  an  account  of  the  large  Meeting  of 
Bishops  at  Lambeth.  It  must  have  been  most  satisfactory  to  see 
how  harmonious  it  was.  The  Archbishop  will  have  had  the 
opportunity  of  making  many  interesting  acquaintances.  The 
Address  will  be  ofificially  answered. 

The  Queen  hopes  the  Archbishop  is  well  ? 

The  Archbishop  notes  : — 

August  20.  A  very  kind  and  characteristic  note  from  the 
Queen.  She  is  glad  that  I  was  pleased  with  the  Lambeth  gather- 
ing, and  thinks  that  I  must  have  enjoyed  the  opportunity  of 
making  many  interesting  acquaintances,  and  hopes  that  I  am  quite 
well  ?  The  sentiment  of  loyalty  is  a  very  independent  one.  I 
remember  the  first  throb  of  it,  and  I  believe  it  will  never  grow  less 
and  is  disconnected  with  anything  touching  regard  for  oneself. 
I  steadily  feel  readiness  to  please  her  and  her  will,  if  need  were,  to 
the  utmost  of  my  power.  It  seems  braggadocio  even  to  say  to  one- 
self "  to  death,"  but  I  think  I  would  die  joyfully  to  defend  her  from 
any  wrong.  What  is  this  "loyal  passion"  for  our  temperate  kings? 
Our  Americans  recognise  its  reality  in  England  though  they  say 
such  a  feeling  would  be  impossible  to  themselves. 

On  August  2 1st  he  writes: — 

Coming  away  with  Nellie  from  the  workhouse  at  Croydon 
yesterday  down  a  little  rough  irregular  street  "May  Day  Lane" 
into  the  London  Road,  Braemore  stumbled  and  fell  on  her  knees 
on  the  sharp  loose  stones.  She  twice  plunged  forward  in  the 
attempt  to  rise  and  then  did  rise  most  gallantly,  and  stood  fright- 
fully injured.  We  scarce  could  get  her  a  few  yards  to  a  stable 
court,  and  the  Veterinary  thinks  the  poor  creature  must  be 
destroyed.  She  saved  Nellie  from  being  killed  or  dreadfully  hurt 
by  lifting  herself  up  in  such  torture.  N.  would  have  gone  on 
her  head  if  she  had  not.  How  full  nature  is  of  these  perfect 
sacrifices.  Her  instinct  was  to  stand  up  on  her  feet  with  her 
mistress  on  her  back,  whereas  it  would  have  been  easier  for  her 


i888  VISIT   TO   SCOTLAND  217 

just  to  roll  down  and  lie  over,  if  obedient  habit  had  not  forced  her 
effort  out  of  her — and  she  will  have  to  be  shot  for  her  dutifulness. 
Felix  qui  potuit  rerum  cognoscere  causas — and  no  one  will  per- 
suade me  that  Braemore  comes  to  an  end  there. 

On  the  23rd  he  went  with  my  mother  to  pay  a  visit  to 
the  late  Lord  Abinger  and  Lady  Abinger,  at  Inverlochy  ; 
he  writes  : — 

August  22,rd.  Left  London  8.50  p.m.  with  my  wife,  having 
driven  from  Addington  to  Euston,  and  travelled  in  half-comfort- 
able sleeplessness  with  bedroom,  sitting-room,  dressing-room,  ser- 
vants and  luggage  to  Stirling,  thence  without  changing  to  Oban. 
The  definitions  of  Luxury  occupying  me  much  and  becoming 
more  puzzling.  If  this  is  an  instance  of  it,  it  cannot  be  defined 
as  "  what  one  likes  "  exactly.  To  some  extent  it  is  "  what  people 
who  know  nothing  about  it  think  they  would  like  exceedingly  " — ■ 
that  is  written  on  many  faces  and  lives.  Read  through  the  last 
three  quarters  of  L Abbe  Tigrane'^,  a  most  disgusting  picture, 
evidently  by  an  ecclesiastic  in  the  background  of  ecclesiastical 
life  in  France.  The  ambition  and  the  discord  and  the  intrigue, 
the  want  of  independence  and  the  want  of  reverence ;  and  finally 
the  irreligious  worldly  autocracy  of  the  Roman  Court.  There  is 
not  happily  in  the  whole  of  my  own  ecclesiastical  life  the  slightest 
resemblance  in  England  either  to  the  ambitions  or  the  enmities 
which  are  taken  for  the  groundwork  of  thought  about  clerical 
affairs, — and  such  secularity  of  spirit,  under  spiritual  forms,  is 
a  phenomenon  rare  indeed.  The  secular  spirit  where  it  exists 
among  us  has  its  own  way  of  contemning  the  spiritual  forms. 

On  August  25th  he  writes  : — 

I  met  a  shepherd  with  100  lambs  and  walked  back  with  him 
talking  of  many  things.  The  people  speak  mostly  Gaelic,  but  it  is 
taught  no  longer  in  the  schools  and  the  children  won't  talk  it. 

Collies  are  not  what  they  were — the  Collie  instincts  are  dying 
out.  Formerly  eight  or  ten  days  would  make  a  Collie  all  they 
wanted,  now  it  takes  a  month  or  two.  They  are  sometimes  very 
difficult.  There  has  been  so  much  over-breeding,  and  they  don't 
take  to  it  "natural."  In  eight  or  ten  years  Collies  "break  up — 
after  being  hard-wrought  over  coorse  ground."     It's  "very  hard 

^  By  the  late  M.  Ferdinand  Fabre. 


2i8  ASCENT    OF    BEN   NEVIS  aet.  59 

work."  He  had  two  dogs,  one  to  "  drive  them  out "  over  the 
ground  and  make  them  spread,  and  the  other  to  "hunt  them  in," — 
each  its  own  work.  One  lamb  got  through  a  fence  and  seemed  as 
if  it  would  kill  itself  dashing  against  the  wires  in  vain.  At  last  dog 
and  man  together  got  it  through.  I  told  him  "  I  was  a  shepherd 
and  should  remember — and  my  Collie  would  be  some  good  lay- 
man whom  I  should  send  after  one  of  my  sheep  to  talk  to  him  and 
frighten  him  before  I  came  up  to  get  him  right."  He  said,  "I 
see,  sir,  I  see  it.  And  one  thing  ye  may  be  sure  of — if  we  can  gae 
wrang,  we  sail." 

About  10  o'clock  after  dinner  Arthur  walked  in  having  stalked 
his  stag,  the  first  stalked  this  season — a  Royal  of  13  points — he 
shot  him  moving  at  100  yards,  he  weighs  15  stone. 

Saturday.  Walked  up  Ben  Nevis  with  wife  and  Arthur- 
many  mists  and,  while  we  lunched  by  the  spring,  pouring  rain — but 
many  fine  peeps  between  the  pillars  of  cloud — and  Glen  Nevis,  a 
beautiful  peaceful  valley  guarded  by  strong  mountains  and  a  "vitri- 
fied fort " — in  its  middle  a  quaint  white  farm  fully  furnished  with 
all  things  needful  for  serviceable  life  and  fenced  from  every  wind 
by  thick  groves  of  planted  trees.  The  owner  died  there  last  week, 
a  young  bachelor  of  35,  having  "taken  to  drink  heavy."  The  top 
of  Ben  Nevis  is  a  huge  mass  of  stones  which  I  suppose  to  be  the 
broken  rock  split  and  split  for  ever  and  ever.  A  fine  uplifting  of 
the  curtain  showed  us  just  five  ranges  of  the  Argyle  Hills  before 
we  came  down — and  the  walk  home  from  the  top  was  serene  and 
clear. 

Heard  that  poor  Braemore  would  not  be  even  healed  of  her 
wounds  for  three  months  and  would  then  be  "life-lame,"  and  must 
be  destroyed.  Alas  !  useful  honest  life  of  service  and  swift  duty, 
— then  three  days  of  agony  begun  with  saving  her  mistress's  life — 
then  sudden  death.  Surely  brutes  must  find  something  in  the 
grave — some  reward. 

He  went  on  to  stay  with  Sir  John  Fowler  at  Braemore  ; 
he  writes  : — 

August  2,0th.  None  of  the  sportsmen  had  any  sport,  except 
that  Sir  J.  had  wounded  a  stag.  It  is  strange  that  my  boys  should 
take  so  to  sport,  when  I  and  my  father  and  his  mother  who 
reared  him  have  all  been  very  Buddhists  as  to  taking  of  life — and 
held  ^^ sport"  to  be  impossible  to  be  got  out  of  it.  But  there  is  a 
class  in  society  who  seem  kept  strong  and  even  pure  through 


i888  VISIT   TO    BALMORAL  219 

it,  preserved  from  gambling  and  from  worse,  and  from  petty 
intriguing  lives  and  from  foppery— all  devouring  powers  in  other 
countries.  But,  I  don't  see  why  they  should  be  so  eagerly  swept 
into  this  sort  of  salvation  who  would  be  strong  and  pure  with- 
out it. 

He  went  on  to  Braemar,  where  we  had  taken  a  house  ; 
Bishop  Lightfoot  and  Professor  Westcott  were  both  stay- 
ing at  Braemar  :    he  writes  : — 

Tuesday,  Sept.  11.  Balmoral  and  Braemar.  With  dear  wife 
and  Nellie  drove  over  to  lunch  at  Balmoral.  Forty  years  since, 
this  September,  I  went  over  the  little  old  castle  where  the  new 
one  now  stands.  The  Queen  looked  exceedingly  well  and  was 
very  gracious — and  her  little  quick  naivetes  and  her  nods  were 
very  bright.  The  Dean  of  Windsor  was  not  well — "  he  works  too 
much — I  think  this  Abp  Tait's  life  tries  him — and  yoiir — "  she 
said  smiling  :  I  said,  "Conference,  Madam?"  "Exactly."  I  said 
that  "  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  said  that  in  all  his  experience  of 
editing  he  had  never  known  such  a  feat  as  Davidson's  in  having  the 
account  of  the  Conference  all  ready  and  printed  and  published  in 
five  days."  She  asked  "  whether  I  noticed  that  the  Highlands 
were  more  thinly  inhabited  than  they  were  forty  years  ago  ?  We 
have  lost  numbers  from  this  neighbourhood — there  were  very  many 
scattered  cottages  in  the  glens,  and  byres,  and  sometimes  stills — 
now  all  are  gone."  I  said,  "It  is  very  bad  for  the  nation — these 
regions  ought  to  rear  a  very  hardy  race."  "  It  is  very  bad,"  she 
said.  I  told  her  we  had  been  at  Inverlochy  and  there  too  the 
crofters  were  disappearing.  They  were  all  very  poor.  "  Very 
poor,"  she  said.  The  drive  home  most  beautiful  and  afterwards 
we  three  walked  with  Westcott  in  the  dusky  but  beautiful  evening 
and  harmless  drizzle  to  Prince's  cairn. 

B.  F.  W.  thinks  the  microscopic  animalcules  with  their 
"monstrous"  fantastic  and  beautiful  shapes  must  have  powers 
and  influences  invisible  to  us. 

Walked  with  B.  F.  W.  to  Linn  of  Dee  and  back — as  did  Nellie 
and  Fred.  They  did  the  six  miles  back  in  ih  hour.  Brooke 
bicycled,  the  rest  drove  with  Bp  of  Durham.  There  we  found 
Sir  Frederic  Leighton  alone  and  he  was  really  studying  and  really 
enjoying — and  the  rocks  were  rocks  indeed  if  they  were  not 
enjoying  him.  The  leaping  of  the  salmon  was  a  most  beautiful 
sight.     Very  many  tried  the  fall  and  we  did  not  see  one  succeed. 


220  ABERGELDIE  aet.  59 

It  looked  hopeless.  They  shot  out  of  a  mass  of  foam  and  fell 
with  apparently  great  force  against  the  rocks  two  or  three  feet 
short  of  the  ledge,  and  the  power  of  the  water  seemed  quite 
irresistible,  driven  down  in  a  vast  white  fan — sometimes  the  whole 
dark  side  with  its  splendid  spots,  and  sometimes  the  purple  and 
white  belly  was  broadside  to  us  in  its  lustre — and  sometimes  the 
vigorous  straight  form  with  plunging  fins,  and  sometimes  a  dark 
curve  like  a  C  shot  up  and  was  instantly  shot  down.  Is  there 
a  great  congregation  of  these  beauties  waiting  and  taking  turns 
in  the  eddy  below,  or  do  half  a  dozen  try  and  try  again  ?  They 
live  anyhow  like  us  in  great  probation  and  discipline  and  don't 
behave  like  either  Stoics  or  Epicureans.  The  indigo  of  the  hills 
as  we  walked  back  ! 

Sir  F.  Leighton  pointed  to  the  Scotch  firs  as  more  fantastic 
and  unexpected  than  any  he  knew.  They  are  not  nearly  so 
weird  as  those  at  Bramshill  which  Kingsley  used  to  say  he  dare 
not  pass  on  an  evening  lest  he  should  hang  himself  on  one  of 
them.  But  Leighton  said  he  found  it  vain  to  try  to  remember 
the  turns  and  angles  at  which  these  branches  squirmed  about — 
"  it  is  too  much,"  he  said.  He  could  not  recollect  them  without 
taking  notes,  nor  redevise  them.  B.  F.  W.  wondered  why  Leighton 
could  want  cross  and  squirming  trees — he  should  have  thought  he 
would  set  all  their  branches  straight. 

On  the  following  day  he  went  to  see  Abergeldie,  where 
he  had  been  as  tutor  forty  years  before  ;  he  says  : — 

Friday. — At  Linn  of  Dee  fish  still  jumping  in  vain.  Drove 
with  Bp  of  Durham  to  see  Abergeldie — we  all  went.  It  was 
strange  to  ramble  through  the  selfsame  rooms  where  I  spent  that 
happy  six  weeks  just  40  years  ago.  The  entrance  hall  where  the 
billiard  table  was,  has  been  turned  into  the  dining-room — it  must 
be  inconvenient.  The  stag  has  disappeared  which  stood  in  it, 
and  which  we  mounted  on  the  triumphal  arch  of  heather  across 
the  road  the  day  the  Queen  passed  on  her  first  visit  to  Balmoral. 
But  the  Gordons  still  hang  on  the  walls,  and  specially  Peter 
Gordon  in  the  red  coat  and  steel  breastplate  which  gave  me  the 
first  good  idea  of  how  people  lived  up  here  a  century  before. 
The  old  vaulted  dining-room  in  the  tower,  where  I  read  a  heap  of 
Cicero,  Virgil,  and  Daniel  Wilson  on  the  Colossians,  has  been 
turned  into  the  Princess'  bedroom,  and  the  vast  old  fireplace 
lowered.     I  was  telling  the  children  how  I  read  the  Pirate  here 


i888  OLD   MEMORIES  221 

the  first  time — and  then  it  just  occurred  to  us  that  the  old  books 
in  the  drawing-room  looked  as  if  they  went  with  the  house,  when 
Lightfoot  actually  produced  the  Pirate  from  the  shelves.  The 
beautiful  grass  terrace  by  the  Dee,  and  the  salmon  pool  where 
I  learnt  to  catch  Par  are  unchanged,  but  "the  Cradle"  is  no  more, 
nor  the  Round  Riding  School  where  I  was  taught  by  an  apt 
mistress  to  dance  and  reel.  From  the  top  of  the  Tower  we 
could  see  Lochnagar  in  his  clouded  beauty,  but  the  peak  was 
distinct  above  the  precipices  where  I  so  nearly  came  to  an  early 
end  while  rashly  though  at  last  successfully  scaling  them  from 
the  loch. 

Forty  years — forty  years — what  a  time  of  poor  service  and  of 
secular  things  put  so  strangely  into  my  hands  and  of  spiritual 
things  expected  of  me  and  so  poorly,  meanly,  waveringly  at- 
tempted. Then  I  had  but  two  ambitions — to  be  a  Fellow  of 
Trinity  and  to  be  a  Canon  of  a  Cathedral — and  the  two  words 
over  the  Rectory  garden  door  at  Linton  appeared  to  me  to  be 
otherwise  the  Ideal  AA0E  BIHCAC^  And  to-day  in  the  garden 
at  Abergeldie  was  a  nice,  gentle,  blue-eyed  gardener  who,  when 
I  asked  him  about  Andrew  Wilson,  the  old  gardener,  and  whether 
he  knew  him,  said  that  he  himself  had  been  gardener's  boy  to 
Andrew  41  years  ago, — "I  came  the  year  before  the  Queen  came 
first  to  Scotland."  He  had  been  here  ever  since  the  year  before 
I  was  here.     "  Set  by  the  Lord  God  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it." 

On  the  15th  he  writes  : — ■ 

Saturday. — Rainy — walked  alone  with  B.F.W.  to  "The  Colonel's 
Bed,"  about  six  miles,  and  back,  a  very  beautiful  chasm  on  the 
little  Ey  with  perpendicular  rocks,  some  almost  as  if  wrought  with 
a  graving  tool.  The  beauty  of  the  place  is  the  still  deep  slide 
of  water  perfectly  smooth,  between  cascade  and  cascade  about 
eighty  yards  of  silent  sluicing  clear  brown  water — when  you  have 
looked  at  the  sky  between  the  cliffs,  and  then  at  the  peaceful  walls 
of  rock  with  their  nestled  tufts  of  beech-fern  and  oak-fern,  and 
stonecrops,  and  rich  yellow  lichen,  and  then  at  the  water,  the 
natural  feeling  is  to  slide  into  it  and  drink  one's  life  full  of  it,  and 
be  left  quiet  in  it.  As  we  came  back,  and  as  we  went  too,  we 
talked  of  many  interests — B.  F.  W.  thinks  that  to  a  certain  point  the 
poor  have  as  many  enjoyments  of  life  as  the  rich — that  we  must 
contemplate  everyone's  own  point  of  view — things  which  would 

^  Live  unknown. 


222  LOCHNAGAR  aet.  59 

make  them  happy,  e.g.  plenty  of  whelks,  would  make  him  miser- 
able. He  thinks  that  all  animals  share  man's  fall  in  being  touched 
with  the  same  wickedness— the  cruelty  of  stags  to  sick  deer — the 
oppression  of  slave  ants,  the  converting  ants  of  an  inferior  class 
into  honey  bags,  etc. — all  wicked.  But  the  passions  in  taking  of 
prey  perhaps  not  so — and  the  view  of  the  animals  preyed  on  not 
perhaps  our  view. 

Su?iday. — We  all  walked  on  to  the  moor  below  Morar  with 
rugs  and  plaids,  and  read  Browning  and  Wordsworth  and  Geo. 
Herbert,  and  had  a  quiet  happy  talk — the  Westcotts  and  their 
four  sons  and  ourselves  and  our  children.  Westcott  is  beginning 
to  be  much  smitten  with  Wordsworth,  "distress  hath  humanized 
my  mind,"  "the  pageantry  of  fear,"  "the  trampHng  waves." 

The  Scotch  Office  has  its  excellences — but  what  a  defect  of 
insight  to  have  altered  "the  good  works  which  Thou  hast  pre- 
pared for  us  to  walk  in " — God's  ideal  of  work  ready  for  us  to 
carry  out — a  TrporjTOLixaaev  ' — into  "  Aa^/i  commanded  us  to  walk  in." 

On  the  19th  he  says  : — 

Walked  up  Lochnagar.  Delighted  to  find  B.  F.  W.  immensely 
impressed  with  Lochnagar  crags  and  cliffs.  I  have  always  wondered 
these  forty  years  why  folks  talked  of  it  and  painters  painted  it  so 
little — it  has  always  seemed  to  me  one  of  the  grandest  things  in 
our  Islands — only  some  of  the  points  in  Cornwall  to  be  compared 
with  it. 

We  were  talking  of  Wordsworth's  "Pantheism"  which  Westcott 
says  appears  to  him  to  have  as  much  sense  as  to  talk  of  "  St  Paul's 
Pantheism  " — to  give  anything  a  substantive  existence  is  an  incon- 
ceivable thing.  "  Tintern  Abbey "  would  give  most  colour  to 
such  an  idea.  "  Hartleap  Well "  I  thought  gave  both — the  reality 
of  God's  immanence  in  everything,  and  the  personality  with  which 
He  is  immanent. 

Talking  of  Cyprian  and  Augustine  earlier  in  the  day  he  said 
that  the  dispute  about  Grace,  works  done  before  Grace,  etc. 
vanished  in  the  fuller  light  of  the  thought  that  nothing  could  have 
substantive  existence  by  itself — that  whatever  isolates  itself  from 
source  of  light  and  life  must  be  dead — "dead  works." 

On  the  20th  he  writes  : — 

Not  a  bit  tired  with  yesterday's  walk.    Quiet  stroll  with  Westcott, 
wife  and  Nellie  along  the  side  of  Morone  to  a  cottage  on  the  edge 
^  What  He  has  prepared  beforehand.     Eph.  ii.  lo. 


i888  BISHOP    LIGHTFOOT  223 

of  the  moor — where  the  gudewife  made  us  scones  and  good  tea — 
back  by  the  road. 

Westcott  dwelt  on  his  favourite  idea  of  creation  being  Umi- 
tation  of  what  was :  that  was  the  only  possibility  :  formation  out  of 
nothing  self-contradictory  :  there  was  no  nothing. 

He  despairs  of  society  unless  it  will  take  stringent  measures 
with  itself.  It  seems  to  him  easy  to  say  that  no  immoral  person 
shall  be  invited  to  a  house.  But  he  cannot  meet  the  difficulties 
of  the  individual  cases — as,  what  are  mothers  to  do  with  their 
sons  ?  How  can  they  have  any  hope  for  them  but  in  society  of 
virtuous  people  ?  What  is  to  be  done  with  the  great  leaders  who 
have  this  one  blot  on  them  ?  Are  they  worse  than  the  covetous, 
the  speculators,  the  man  utterly  selfish  in  money?  Can  they  be 
excluded  from  society  ?     Did  the  early  Christians  exclude  them  ? 

It  is  indeed  a  fearful  problem — for  fashionable  society  does 
get  worse,  and  there  seems  no  way  of  speaking  to  those  who  will 
not  hear,  or  give  a  moment's  hearing.  We  cannot  see  into  society 
deep  enough,  and  it  is  of  no  use  merely  to  lecture  from  the  outside. 
Those  who  have  real  sympathy  with  the  evil  and  spare  it  on  that 
account  through  bad  conscience  can  do  no  good.  But  neither 
will  they  reform  it  who  can  only  say,  "  No  one  who  is  understood 
to  be  guilty  in  such  ways  ought  to  be  received  anywhere."  It  is 
easy  for  me  not  to  receive  them.  But  there  are  those  who  are  at 
the  other  pole  of  obligation,  and  B.  F.  W.  only  says  "  I  am  quite 
clear." 

Lady  C.  writes  to-day,  "  I  sometimes  think  that  fashionable 
London  wants  a  rougher  and  a  ruder  rousing  and  a  more  startling 
picture  of  their  own  lives  held  up  before  them  than  they  have  had  !  " 

On  the  23rd  he  notes  : — 

Sunday. — A  conversation  with  Mr  Noble  who  is  attending  the 
Bp  of  Durham  here.  He  thinks  very  seriously  of  my  dear  Light- 
foot's  condition.  The  utmost  he  seems  to  infer  is  some  years 
comparatively  comfortable  under  conditions  which  will  be  to  his 
active  mind  and  nature  most  galling.  No  great  mental  labour, 
no  bodily  exertion,  no  anxiety.  It  is  terrible  to  think  of  the 
enchaining  of  such  powers,  intellectual,  spiritual  and  till  lately 
bodily  also. 

He  drove  on  to  the  moor  with  Welch  ^  and  the  Westcotts,  and 

1  The  Rev.  Edward  Ashurst  Welch,  now  Provost  of  Trinity  College, 
Toronto. 


224  BISHOP   BLYTH  aet.  59 

he  and  we  read  Clough,  Browning's  Kharshish,  Wordsworth's 
Tintern  Abbey.  Large  congregation — early  Communion — and  two 
sermons  which  nobody  cared  for — one  of  them  alleging  as  a  proof 
of  the  truth  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  advantages  of  Temperance, 
that  a  tribe  of  Bedouins  calls  itself  the  descendants  of  Jonadab 
the  son  of  Rechab. 

On  the  24th  he  says  : — 

Back  by  the  woods  under  the  lion's  face  and  a  talk  with  an 
old  keeper,  Thomson,  who  places  the  Farquharsons  first,  and  the 
Queen,  as  only  a  stranger,  next,  and  told  me  he  had  "  heard  of 
me  as  being  the  second  person  in  the  kingdom."  We  had  a 
merry  talk  and  he  afterwards  described  me  as  "a  fine  cracky 
man,"  i.e.  ready  to  have  cracks  and  stories  with  him.  His  wife 
died  this  winter  and  they  say  "he  greeted  sair," — and  he  has 
never  talked  of  her  since — she  is  buried  in  his  heart.  She  was  a 
shrewd  clever  good  soul.  A  visitor  offered  her  ^2  for  one  of 
her  dogs,  and  she  replied,  "  I'm  thinking  your  twa  pund  would 
be  varra  still  of  a  winter  night."  The  old  man  says  "it  isn't  at 
a'  lanesome  in  winter" — he's  rather  angered  then  when  people 
come  to  interrupt  him  in  his  reading. 

He  returned  to  Addington  at  the  end  of  September, 
very  much  better  in  health,  and  greatly  stimulated  by  the 
interchange  of  thought  with  his  oldest  and  dearest  friends, 
though  he  was  very  anxious  about  Bishop  Lightfoot's 
health. 

He  writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Sept.  28,  1888.  Bishop  Blyth  and  Riley  and  Mrs  B.  and 
Mrs  R.  here. 

The  Bishop  consults  me  as  to  confirming  children  who  have 
received  the  Greek  Chrism  at  their  baptism  as  infants.  The 
ritualists  abuse  him  if  he  confirms  them,  the  C.  M.  S.  if  he  does 
not.  The  Greek  Bishops  do  not  object  to  his  doing  so,  but  if  we 
do,  we  really  in  our  own  minds  ignore  the  Greek  form,  while  they 
permit  it  only  because  they  hold  ours  to  be  no  confirmation  at  all, 
and  if  we  administer  it,  knowing  this,  we  condemn  our  own.  I 
have  advised  him  to  regard  them  as  confirmed,  but  to  have  a 
service  with  them  of  "admission  to  Holy  Communion"  and  to 
give  them  his  blessing,  distinctly  informing  them  that  this  is  not 


ADDINGTON 


225 


confirmation.  This  service  he  could  hold  in  vestry,  school  or 
church,  just  before  the  confirmation,  and  then  after  it  give  Holy 
Communion  to  all. 

On  Oct.  6th  he  writes,  after  a  conversation  with  a 
Colonial  Bishop  on  the  "  position "  of  a  Bishop  in  the 
Colonies  : — 

The  worst  of  what  is  called  a  "  position  "  in  an  old  country  is 
that  the  spontaneity  of  the  man  who  fills  it  counts  for  so  little.  All 
he  can  do  seems  to  everyone  to  be  due  to  the  position  only,  and 
if  he  in  any  way  cuts  across  his  position  so  as  to  bring  out  his  own 
man-ness  he  is  severely  criticised — and  justly.  It  is  easier  to 
cultivate  humility  in  a  great  position — and  therefore  to  fail  to 
do  so  is  punished  by  pride. 

On  the  7th  October  he  wrote : — 

A  very  peaceful  day.  In  the  parish  it  is  the  first  Sunday  of 
preparation  for  the  Mission^ — and  Mylne  preached  two  very 
earnest  sermons,  and  after  Evensong  there  was  a  devotional 
meeting  in  the  church. 

Walked  as  usual  in  the  afternoon  with  my  dear  children, 
Maggie  and  Fred,  and  Geo.  Herbert  and  Keble.  The  old  swan 
came  on  to  the  road  and  fed  from  our  hands.  It  is  certain  that 
keeping  the  water  in  the  fountain  fresh  and  clear  has  the  effect 
of  brightening  the  colours  of  the  goldfish. 

A  peaceful  beautiful  day.  But  a  very  little  flush  of  contra- 
diction about  anything  seems  to  tell  more  instead  of  less  in 
disturbing  one's  spirit  as  time  goes  on.    This  is  not  surely  normal. 

To  Bishop  Lightfoot. 

SiTTINGBOURNE. 

II  Oct.  1888. 
Dearest  Brother, 

I  hope  the  result  of  the  consultation  was  to  give  you 
relief  and  courage — not  courage  as  a  duty,  which  of  course  you 
have  in  great  measure  by  the  gift  of  God  so  faithfully  used — but 
I  hope  it  helped  simple  animal  courage  which  is  so  necessary 
and  which  rises  with  good  news. 

I  hear  of  people  going  on  so  quietly  and  well  and  comfortably 

B.  II.  15 


226  MISSION   AT  ADDINGTON  aet.  59 

with  weak  hearts  that  you  must  not  at  all  draw  the  inference  you 
had  felt  at  first  obliged  to  draw.  If  you  avoid  shock  and  strain 
there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  you  should  not  go  on  with  even 
gathering  power  like  Tait — who  was  never  so  strong  as  when 
he  was  weak. 

It  is  indeed  right  to  have  made  all  your  arrangements.  I 
most  heartily  wish  I  had  done  so.  I  ought  to  have  done  so,  and 
I  must.  I  suffer  constant  self-reproach  for  having  put  nothing 
in  order.     But  I  really  must  do  as  you  have  wisely  done. 

I  shall  hear  when  you  have  made  up  your  mind  as  to  what 
you  will  do^ — and  if  you  can  and  will  use  our  house  and  ourselves 
how  thankful  we  should  be. 

I  am  visiting  parts  of  my  diocese — the  Church  is  surrounded  by 
foes,  but  the  grace  of  God  is  indeed  in  her,  and  she  is  toiling  well. 

Ever  your  loving, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  October  25th  he  wrote : — 

The  wise  Chinese  !  The  citizens  of  Lan-ki,  no  mean  city,  are 
erecting  three  pagodas  to  avert  the  evil  effects  of  the  telegraph 
which  is  being  led  through  their  territory.  I  shall  instantly  build 
a  pagoda  by  May's  Lodge. 

Oct.  29.  Maggie  points  out  to  me  how  singularly  Martineau 
in  his  noble  study  of  Ethics  (being  really  a  stranger  to  the 
doctrine  of  Atonement)  misses  the  point  that  Forgiveness  is  in- 
tended to  be  a  Restoration.  He  speaks  of  the  forgiven  man  as 
thenceforth  on  a  lower  level  though  forgiven — Was  Peter's  brother 
to  be  always  490  steps  down  ?  The  connection  with  unitarianism 
very  interesting. 

Nov.  10.  To-night  opened  the  Mission  at  Addington — giving 
benediction  to  the  two  Missioners,  Mr  Gough'  and  Mr  Ogilvie. 
Then  I  spoke  to  the  people  for  about  twenty  minutes,  as  plainly 
as  regards  themselves,  and  as  affectionately  as  I  could — village 
sins,  village  quarrels,  and  "the  joy  of  the  Lord."  A after- 
wards spoke  and  hoped  we  should  go  "  much  higher  and  deeper 
than  the  thought  of  peace  and  joy  in  God " — that  they  would 
devote  themselves  to  afford  "joy  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus." 
It  was  rather  strange — but,  dear  people,  I  hope  they  will. 

^  Rev.  E.  J.  Gough,  now  Vicar  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 


i888  BISHOP   LIGHTFOOT'S   ILLNESS  227 

On  the  nth  he  wrote: — 

Holy  Communion  in  Chapel — Mr  Ogilvie  preaches  in  Church 
— a  manly  sort  of  person.  Again  could  not  go  to  Evensong — 
too  misty  for  my  obstinate  cold.  Had  it  alone  in  Chapel — and 
afterwards  read  through  Sidpicius  Severiis,  Vila  S.  Martini — 
which  my  own  dear  Martin  thought,  and  rightly  thought,  an 
admirable  piece  of  biography.  The  miracles  are  very  reducible 
to  order  and  thought — at  least  most  of  them.  And  St  Martin's 
own  turn  of  mind  was  distinctly  critical,  as  appears  in  the  story 
of  the  supposed  Martyr's  Altar — and  this  falls  in  with  what  is 
said  of  his  excellent  style  of  speaking  and  of  solving  difficult 
questions,  though  really  an  uneducated  man.  He  too  like  so 
many  great  men  was  a  little  unimpressive  personage.  It  is  in 
biographies  like  these  that  we  have  the  key  to  our  missionary 
failures — asceticism  is  essential  to  the  first  stages  of  persuasion. 

A  few  days  later  he  held  a  Confirmation  and  writes  : — 

Confirmed  in  one  of  those  churches  where  the  clergyman  is 
particular  about  choir,  fabric,  churchyard,  school  order,  school 
prizes — but  sees  no  confirmation  candidate  privately.  They  are 
nearly  extinct.  One  feels  that  the  sheep  are  quietly  shepherding 
the  shepherd. 

To  the  Rev.  Father  Purbrick,  S.J. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
14  Nov.  1888. 

My   dear    PURBRICK, 

For  yourself,  dear  old  friend,  how  are  you  ?     I  am 
wonderfully  well  considering  the  vast  increasing  work  and  years. 

But  why  do  you  not  some  day  come  to  see  me,  as  you  said 
you  would?  You  must  often  be  near  Lambeth  and  the  sight 
of  you  would  do  good  to  your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  the  2 1  St  he  went  to  see  Bishop  Lightfoot ;  he 
writes : — 

Went  down  to  Bournemouth  (the  train  being  stopped  for  me 
at  Clapham  Junction  going  and  returning)  between  1.30  and  5. 11, 

The  Bishop  of  Durham  has  moved  into  a  nice  house,  Mr 
PuUeine's,  where   he   is  doing  much  better — his  two  chaplains, 

15—2 


228  BISHOP   LIGHTFOOT'S   ILLNESS  aet.  59 

Eden'  and  Harmer^,  and  two  excellent  nurses  and  a  good  doctor 
(Thomson)  do  all  that  mortals  can  do  for  a  life  so  loved 
and  precious.  It  will  be  months  before  they  are  able  to  say 
whether  he  will  recover.  The  operation  was  performed  at  the 
exact  right  moment.  The  heart  has  been  recovering  itself  ever 
since,  contracts  better,  and  for  10  days  there  has  been  no  draw- 
back. He  can  occupy  himself  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour 
at  a  time  with  light  literary  work — and  frequently  does.  Most 
patient,  kind  and  dry  in  his  remarks.  The  mass  of  material 
ready  to  be  finished  for  the  Church's  use  must  be  immense. 
He  says,  "  I  have  no  wish  to  live  if  I  am  to  be  helpless."  He 
is  most  tender  and  his  eyes  often  grow  liquid,  and  his  affection 
for  the  poor,  and  his  anxiety  for  his  diocese  and  the  Church  is 
as  full  as  ever,  but  he  cannot  be  allowed  to  dwell  long  on  things 
which  vex  him.  He  gives  his  chaplains  leave  to  read  him  a 
Psalm  "if  they  Hke."  But  he  says,  "the  things  which  edify 
others  do  not  edify  me.  I  feed  on  three  or  four  great  thoughts." 
He  has  however  prayers  read  for  his  household  and  hymns  sung 
by  them  so  that  he  can  hear  through  an  open  door — ^and  his 
face  is  as  of  one  lost  in  quiet  devotion. 

He  spoke  of  the  strangeness  of  finding  five  minutes  in  the 
night  interminable,  yet  the  time  since  we  were  at  Braemar  as 
scarcely  perceptible. 

I  asked  him  if  we  could  not  be  of  use  against  the  foolish 
deductions  drawn  by  Dissenters  from  his  essay  on  the  Christian 
Ministry,  and  the  mischief  which  would  be  done  or  is  done  as 
he  says  by  stating  his  qualifying  sentences  as  if  they  were  the 
gist  of  his  substance  and  omitting  context.  I  found  that  he  was 
actually  reprinting  a  collection  of  passages  from  various  sermons 
and  essays  to  bring  out  his  real  view  on  a  fly-leaf.  But  he  said, 
"  I  cannot  offer  any  explanations ;  I  must  express  myself  in  my 
own  way  and  people  can  see  what  I  say,  but  as  for  saying  that 
I  have  said  that  the  presbytery  was  the  original  Church  government 
and  that  episcopacy  was  adapted  out  of  it,  they  might  as  well 
suppose  I  think  that  the  Diaconate  was  the  original  form  of 
Church  government,  and  everything  accommodated  out  of  that, 
simply  because  it  was  earlier  instituted.  Of  course  everything  was 
imperfect  when  it  was  beginning." 

I  left  him  with  a  heavy  but  brightened  feeling. 

^  George  Rodney  Eden,  now  Bishop  of  Wakefield. 
^  John  Reginald  Harmer,  now  Bishop  of  Adelaide. 


1888  BISHOP   LIGHTFOOT  229 

The  Rev.  G.  R.  Eden  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Sandykeld,  Bournemouth. 
Dec.  7,  1888. 
My  dear  Lord  Archbishop, 

The  Bishop  of  Durham  desires  me  to  thank  you  for 
your  letter  to  him,  and  has  charged  me  to  convey  to  you  several 
matters  in  reply. 

First,  that  he  is  not  so  well  so  far  as  he  can  judge  himself 
as  when  you  saw  him  last,  though  it  remains  true  that  some  of 
the  symptoms  have  improved,  and  that  he  does  not  feel  himself 
any  nearer  to  vigorous  work.     Secondly,  that  he  is  greatly  grieved 

to  hear  about  the  affairs  of  P ,  and  that  his  name  is  ready 

on  their  behalf,  or  that  he  will  help  in  any  way  he  can.  Thirdly, 
that  he  does  not  see  how  he  can  at  present  attempt  to  convert 
Pope  Leo  XII L,  but  that  he  will  be  glad  to  do  anything  which 
your  friends  can  suggest  in  this  direction.  Fourthly,  that  he 
entirely  agrees  with  your  remarks  about  Oaths  as  reported  in 
the  Guardian ;  and  fifthly,  that  he  sends  you  his  love.  These 
heads  I  have  just  put  down  shortly  as  he  gave  them  to  me. 
I  am,  my  Lord  Archbishop,  with  much  respect. 

Yours  very  truly, 

G.  R.  Eden. 

The  Rev.  G.  R.  Eden  to  the  Ajxhbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Sandykeld,  Bournemouth. 
Dec.  31,  1888. 
My  dear  Lord  Archbishop, 

The  Bishop  still  asks  me  every  night  to  come  to 
him,  and  seems  increasingly  to  value  the  passages  and  hymns, 
and  gives  me  occasionally  a  subject  for  special  prayer.  As  I 
was  praying  for  the  Church  of  England,  he  exclaimed,  "Pray 
for  the  Archbishop,"  in  a  voice  full  of  emotion.  This  was  after 
your  last  letter  which  refreshed  him 

On  the  1 8th  Mrs  J.  ElHson,  Archbishop  Tait's  youngest 
daughter,  died.  The  Archbishop  felt  it  very  deeply ;  he 
writes  : — 

Saturday,  Dec.  22. — What  days  God  sometimes  gives  us  ! 

Holy  Communion  as  the  other  days,  7.45.     C.  B.  celebrated. 


230  RITUALISM  aet.  59 

Laid  by  her  father,  Aggie,  whom  a  year  ago  I  married  so 
happily  to  John  Ellison.  Her  beauty,  her  wonderful  Hght  abun- 
dant hair,  her  sweetest  voice,  which  used  to  ring  through  Lambeth 
Chapel  so  true,  her  peculiar  delicate  touching  manner  made  her 
a  singularly  endowed  brightness.  And  there  she  sleeps — the 
church  full  of  friends  from  all  distances.  Her  husband  all  sweet- 
ness and  power  to  see  his  blessings  in  the  midst  of  and  very 
clasp  of  his  sorrow. 

Examination  of  Priests  and  Deacons  with  this  marvel  of  death 
just  pushing  us  aside  and  then  going  on.  I  charged  them  this 
evening  mainly  on  study  and  prayer.  The  men  were  alone  with 
me  this  year. 

On  the  last  night  of  the  year  the  Archbishop  w^rote : — 

Dec.  31. — Ended  the  year — not  very  brightly  alas! — in  Ad- 
dington  Church — midnight  service. 

So  full  of  fears,  self-misgivings,  anxieties,  perplexities — such 
sorrows  threatening,  such  sorrow  present,  such  openings  for  great 
mistakes,  such  possibilities  for  hostility  gathering  in  cumuli  on 
the  horizon — the  clergy  so  depressed — I  dare  not  write  the  utter 
emptiedness  of  confidence.  I  can  only  look  mutely, — and  grant 
that  it  may  be  stedfastly — to  Thee  Who  hast  led  me  a  juventute 
mea  usque  ad  banc  horam. 

As  the  prosecution  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  was  now  in 
its  initial  stages,  it  will  be  necessary  to  turn  our  attention 
to  that  subject  ;  but  I  think  it  is  as  well  first  shortly  to 
summarise,  as  simply  as  possible,  my  father's  attitude  with 
regard  to  the  whole  question  of  Ritualism. 

The  fact  that  my  father's  attitude  towards  Ritualism 
has  been  so  often  misunderstood  is  due  perhaps  more  than 
anything  to  the  breadth  and  to  the  elasticity  of  his  view. 

Breadth  is  often  used  to  mean  vagueness ;  elasticity  to 
mean  want  of  principle  ;  but  there  was  no  suspicion  of 
laxity  or  indefiniteness  about  my  father's  theory  of  Wor- 
ship. 

The  love  of  order,  of  perfection — not  mere  "  finish  " — 
even  in  detail,  and  of  the  refined,  the  dramatic  expression 


SYMBOLISM  231 

of  great  ideas,  were  inherent  principles  of  his  nature.  Con- 
versely, too,  he  sought  by  instinct  for  the  hidden  meanings 
of  all  beauties. 

A  touch  of  the  dramatic  artist  in  a  constitution  intensely 
and  instinctively  spiritual  made  him  instinctively  seek  a 
fitting  embodiment  for  great  ideas,  while  it  was  radically 
impossible  for  him  to  rest  satisfied  with  forms. 

Symbolism  was  to  him  not  a  technicality  of  religion 
but  a  quality  of  the  world.  As  he  wrote  in  1851,  after 
reading  Wordsworth  at  the  Lakes  :  "  I  believe  there  is 
a  real  language  and  I  shall  try  to  learn  it... until  I  can 
understand  it  for  myself  without  a  poet  to  interpret, — and 
/  will  talk  with  rocks  and  trees."  Nothing  was  more 
characteristic  of  him  than  the  eager  question  among  natural 
beauties  :  "  What  does  it  all  inea7i  ?  " 

Thus,  again,  acts  had  their  language  and  he  recognised 
a  symbolism  of  form.  It  has  been  noticed  by  Dr  Verrall 
how  even  as  a  young  boy  he  was  impressed  by  my  father's 
dramatic  action  at  Wellington.  His  own  touching  allusion 
to  the  beautiful  "  scene  "  of  Archbishop  Tait's  funeral,  "  true 
nature  and  true  love  expressing  itself  nobly,"  with  illustra- 
tion of  what  he  means  by  reference  to  "the  grand  scenes 
of  the  Revelation  Worship,"  is  as  characteristic  as  the 
following  entry  in  his  Diary  : — 

Feb.  21,  1889.  House  of  Lords  was  opened  at  2  in  the  usual 
form  :  dignifiedly  quaint  in  all  its  points  and  thoroughly  ritualistic. 

Again  his  description  in  1880^  of  the  Freemasons' 
ceremonies  as  "  satisfactory  and  refreshing  from  the  simple 
exposition  of  symbolism  as  an  element  in  life,  quite  apart 
from  ecclesiasticism,"  will  be  remembered. 

To  understand  further  his  view  of  ritual — symbolism  in 
religion,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  was  an  Ecclesiastic 

^  At  the  laying  of  the  Foundation  Stone  of  Truro  Cathedral,  see  vol.  I. 
P-  454- 


232  BEAUTY   IN  WORSHIP 

born  ;  everything  ecclesiastical, — stately  buildings,  historical 
traditions,  dignified  ceremonial,  solemn  music, — appealed 
to  him  from  childhood  :  but  his  interest  in  these  things  was, 
as  he  himself  stated,  at  first  mainly  aesthetic.  He  loved 
symbolism  in  everything,  and  symbolism  consecrated  by 
tradition  most  of  all. 

Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  ecclesiasticism, — the  wonder 
and  beauty  of  the  Church,  its  life  and  growth,  its  origin 
and  history,  its  traditions  and  associations — was  with  him 
a  support,  almost  a  source  of  religious  feeling,  not  a  mere 
outcome  of  it.  Thus  there  was  no  danger  of  its  overpower- 
ing the  latter.  We  have  seen  how  in  1847  he  wrote  in 
the  severe  tone  of  youth  to  his  friend  : — 

I  hear  much  of  the  Church,  Baptism,  the  Eucharist,  but  very 
little  of  Christ's  Church,  Christ's  Baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  the 
atonement  and  mediation  of  Christ. 

As  beauty  of  worship  was  thus  a  natural  instinct  with 
him,  in  early  days  the  idea  of  any  antagonism  between 
beauty  and  worship  seems  to  have  struck  him  as  almost 
absurd.  He  wrote  in  1857  from  Paris  to  his  future  wife, 
after  describing  a  service  at  Chartres  : — 

It  was  a  painful  sight  in  the  midst  of  all  this  to  see  the  main 
devotion  paid  to  the  Vierge  Noire  ;  a  hideous  featureless  black  doll 
and  idol  six  hundred  years  old,  which  still  brings  grist  to  the  mill. 
How  the  enemy  of  all  must  laugh  to  hear  some  talk  of  being  led 
away  by  architecture  and  beautiful  externals  from  a  religion,  when 
here  among  the  most  beautiful  of  all  such  externals  people  disregard 
them  to  worship  ugliness. 

Yet  the  softening  of  experience  made  him  see  that 
there  were  natures  to  which  such  thoughts  did  not  appeal, 
and,  though  he  thought  these  persons  mistaken,  though  he 
thought  that  they  excluded  a  source  of  sacred  pleasure 
and  divine  uplifting  from  their  lives,  yet  he  in  no  way 
condemned  them  ;  rather  he  felt  a  kind  of  amazed  com- 
passion.    At   the  same   time   the  inner   side   of  symbolic 


PRIVATE   DEVOTIONS  233 

ceremonial  and  mystical  observance  grew  upon  him  every 
year ;  he  was  so  penetrated  with  the  love  of  God  and 
Christ  that  each  act  of  devotion  was,  as  it  were,  a 
fragrant  offering  presented  to  the  Divine.  But  it  was  the 
thing  signified  and  not  the  material  sign  or  fashion  of  its 
presentment  that  he  adored.  His  letters  and  diaries  are 
full  of  such  thoughts,  strongly  felt  and  strongly  expressed. 

From  his  earliest  days  he  had  the  same  desire  for  the 
outward  expression  of  religious  thought ;  the  story  that  I 
have  told  of  his  private  chapel  in  the  Lead  Works  at 
Birmingham  is  the  first  indication  of  this :  but  this  was  not 
a  mere  fancy  for  ecclesiastical  upholstery ;  it  was  but  the 
shrine  for  a  devotion  of  which  the  flame  burnt  clear  and 
strong  ;  few  days  passed  without  the  saying  of  as  much  of 
the  Canonical  Hours  as  he  could  manage ;  I  have  seen  too 
among  his  papers  a  service-book  written  out  by  himself  in 
the  delicate  and  minute  handwriting  of  his  school-days, 
with  the  rubrics  carefully  inserted  in  red,  which  as  a  boy  he 
constantly  used.  At  Cambridge  he  found  great  comfort  and 
strength  in  the  solemn  daily  services  ;  at  Rugby  he  laboured 
most  diligently  for  the  seemly  reparation  of  the  Chapel. 
At  Wellington  he  spent  many  happy  hours  upon  designing 
and  thinking  out  every  detail  of  a  holy  sanctuary,  and  the 
solemn  decorum  of  the  school  services  there,  with  their 
decent  and  orderly  ceremonial,  but  without  any  appearance 
of  elaborate  ritual,  expressed  his  own  views.  At  Lincoln 
the  little  Oratory  was  most  carefully  designed.  At  Truro 
the  chapel  was  fitted  up,  every  detail  planned  by  himself, 
such  as  the  screen  and  stalls  of  deal  and  the  little  sweet- 
toned  organ,  whose  pleading  voice  he  loved. 

At  the  same  time  he  had  a  great  warmth  of  feeling  for 
the  Evangelicals  ;  his  father  had  been  a  pronounced  Evan- 
gelical, and  it  was  from  Mr  George  Lee,  the  clergyman  of 
his  Birmingham  parish  and  a  prominent  Evangelical,  that 


234  EVANGELICALISM 

he  received  his  first  external  impulse  to  holy  living.  His 
description  of  "  Spiritual  Evangelicalism "  in  his  latest 
charge,  is  not  the  language  of  one  who  only  desires  to  be 
fair,  but  of  one  who  has  a  heartfelt  affection  for  that  of 
which  he  is  speaking, — "with  'ravish'd  ear' we  have  listened 
among  men  listening  to  the  simplest  telling  of  the  tale  of 
the  Cross.... This  is  spiritual  power,  the  outpour  of  sur- 
rendered life  V  Still,  my  father  recognised  that  the  Evan- 
gelical movement  was,  for  some  cause  little  understood, 
dying  out  in  England  :  and  he  was  not  backward  in  show- 
ing that  if  the  spirit  died  out  of  Evangelicalism,  it  also 
might  become  a  "  ritual  system,"  though  the  superficial 
"  aspect  of  the  Ritual  were  different." 
Professor  Mason  writes  : — 

The  thing  which  he  was  most  afraid  of,  at  any  rate  about  the 
middle  of  his  Archiepiscopate,  was  lest  the  Evangelicals  "  should 
be  made  to  feel  uncomfortable  in  the  Church  of  England." 
Nobody  could  doubt,  of  course,  that  his  own  patristic  and 
mediaeval  studies  brought  him  into  closer  agreement  with  other 
parties  than  with  that  party ;  but  he  felt  at  one  time  that  there 
was  real  danger  of  an  Evangelical  secession  from  the  Church, 
and  that  if  it  took  place,  the  position  of  the  Church  as  an 
"Establishment"  was  lost.  He  thought  that  everything  should 
be  done,  that  in  reason  could  be  done,  in  order  to  retain  them. 
"  Except  these  abide  in  the  ship,"  he  said  to  me  once,  "  ye  cannot 
be  saved." 

His  personal  instincts  were  in  this  matter  subordinated 
to  his  judgment  in  a  way  as  striking  as  it  is  unusual. 
That  he  himself  found  external  beauty  of  worship  an  aid 
to  devotion  neither  alienated  his  sympathies  from  those 
who  found  it  a  hindrance,  nor  blinded  the  clearness  of  his 
judgment  on  matters  more  important  with  regard  to  those 
whose  natural  disposition  was  in  accordance  with  his  own  ; 
though  here  again  a  finer  taste,  a  more  historical  knowledge 

^  Fishers  of  Men,  p.   127. 


REMINISCENCES— PROFESSOR   MASON         235 

often  made  details  of  worship,  intended  to  be  expressive, 
painful  and  disturbing  to  him. 

Again,  Professor  Mason  writes,  with  regard  to  his  interest 
in  liturgical  matters  : — 

Any  and  every  liturgical  question  was  full  of  interest  to  him — 
of  scientific  interest.  He  hardly  liked  people  to  know  how  much 
interested  he  was  in  such  things.  Once  at  Truro,  when  we  were 
arranging  that  Henry  Walpole  and  I  should  sing  the  Litany 
together  at  the  Ordination,  he  said  that  the  proper  place  for  us 
to  do  it  would  be  at  the  south  end  of  the  Altar ;  he  had  seen  it 
done  so  at  an  Ordination  at  the  Lateran ;  but,  as  he  could  not 
allege  this  reason,  he  thought  it  would  be  better  to  take  another 
position.  When  he  was  beginning  to  prepare  for  the  Lambeth 
Judgment,  we  were  walking  in  the  woods  at  Addington,  and  he 
talked  a  good  while  about  the  gesture  of  benediction, — how  the 
presbyter,  blessing  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  raises  the 
three  fingers ;  the  bishop  blesses  with  the  open  hand,  symbolising 
the  plenitude  of  power.  "But,"  he  added,  "I  don't  wish  to 
seem  to  know  too  much  about  these  things."  After  it  was  over, 
when  I  asked  him  how  he  could  possibly  have  elaborated  all  that 
detail  of  antiquarian  lore  in  the  midst  of  his  other  labours,  he 
said,  "Oh,  of  course  I  could  never  have  done  it  if  I  had  not 
worked  at  these  things  very  long  ago." 

I  had  a  most  delightful  talk  with  him  one  day  riding  at 
Addington.  It  began  with  Cranmer.  He  was  anxious  that  I 
should  get  on  with  my  work  upon  him.  He  spoke  very  severely 
of  the  kind  of  sarcastic  flavour  discernible  in  some  of  the  remarks 
on  Cranmer  in  the  earlier  part  of  Mr  Dixon's  History, — which 
are  exchanged  for  something  much  more  generous  in  the  later 
volumes.  He  delighted  in  Morice's  description  of  Cranmer's 
horsemanship, — a  point  which  brought  him  into  very  close 
sympathy  with  Archbishop  Benson — and  of  his  industrious 
learning — and  then  he  went  on  to  picture  the  meetings  of  the 
Committee  for  drawing  up  the  English  Prayer-book]  how  Cranmer 
would  come  in  and  say,  "  I  think  that  I  have  found  something  in 
a  Greek  Liturgy  that  will  exactly  do  for  this  point  or  that ;  I  am 
sure  you  will  like  to  hear  it."  His  fancy  was  very  busy  with  the 
discussions.  I  told  him  that  I  was  much  afraid  that  the  dis- 
cussions were  not  quite  so  amiable  as  he  made  out,  and  that 
indeed   it  was  to  my  mind  doubtful  whether   such  discussions 


236  LITURGIOLOGY 

were  held  at  all ;  but  his  mind  was  burning  with  the  imaginary 
discussions.  He  passed  on  to  speaking  of  the  result  of  it  all, 
wondering  why  Cranmer  should,  as  he  thought,  have  so  saddened 
and  depressed  the  Eucharistic  Service,  and  given  it  such  a 
penitential  tone,  by  putting  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  at  the  end, 
with  the  additional  cry  for  mercy  which  is  found  only  in  our  form 
of  it,  which  he  was  persuaded  was  not  merely  a  printer's  error. 
The  position  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  our  service  was  another 
thing  of  which  he  spoke  strongly.  He  thought  it  was  put  after 
the  Communion  in  order  deliberately  to  minimize  the  reference  to 
the  Blessed  Sacrament  in  the  words,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
Bread."  I  pleaded  that  the  present  position  of  the  Prayer,  while 
it  brought  out  the  fact  that  we  can  only  rightly  use  such  petitions 
by  virtue  of  an  established  fellowship  in  Christ,  did  not  at  all 
deny  that  we  had  already  received  our  "daily  Bread,"  but  only 
implied  that  the  reception  was  not  a  thing  of  one  moment  only, 
but  that  having  received  the  Bread  we  still  needed  to  have  its 
virtue  imparted  to  us.  But  the  Archbishop  would  not  accept 
the  view.  He  said  it  was  "very  spiritual,"  but  that  he  did  not 
think  the  reformers  meant  it.  The  whole  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
he  thought,  in  the  old  offices,  was  concentrated  upon  that  one 
petition,  with  direct  reference  to  the  Communion  which  was  to 
follow  immediately — and  I  remember  how  he  sang  out  his  da 
nobis  hodie  in  imitation  of  the  priests  whom  he  had  heard  singing 
it  abroad ;  and  he  felt  sure  that  to  our  great  loss  the  prayer  had 
been  transposed  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  application  of  that 
clause  to  the  Holy  Communion. 

His  life  in  later  years  left  him  little  time  for  study,  and 
only  his  delight  in  liturgiology  could  have  made  it  possible 
even  to  plan  such  work  as  he  speaks  of  in  a  letter  to 
Bishop  Mackarness  of  Oxford': — 

I  have  always  been  very  thankful  for  the  Day  Hours,  and 
have  used  it  for  years  in  our  Domestic  Chapels  at  Lincoln  and 
Truro.  I  have  thought  the  book  was  doing  in  a  very  quiet  way 
a  great  deal  of  good  and  opening  the  door  to  much  more  good 

^  Bishop  Mackarness  had  asked  on  behalf  of  Lord  Beauchamp  that  a  new 
edition  of  Day  Hours  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  Lord  Beauchamp  was 
bringing  out,  might  be  dedicated  to  my  father.  This  my  father  felt  it  would, 
for  various  reasons,  be  better  to  decline. 


BLACK-LETTER   SAINTS  237 

in  familiarizing  Church  people  with  the  to  them  hazy  fact  that 
there  was  more  to  come  from  the  source  from  which  the  Prayer- 
Book   came.     Your   own   name  was  just  the  guarantee   that   it 

needed 

These  are  the  main  things,  but  besides  that,  you  and  Lord 
Beauchamp  will  not  be  the  least  offended,  as  you  speak  of  revision,  if 
I  say  that  I  should  like  more  revision  of  it  than  can  be  given  before 
the  appearance  of  the  4th  edition.  I  have  long  wished  to  translate 
some  of  the  antiphons  and  collects  differently,  and  for  both  of 
them  to  make  more  use  of  the  ancient  Prymers  and  service-books 
in  Maskell,  etc.  Also  the  monotony  of  the  Black-letter  collects  is 
oppressive,  and  to  make  Britius  and  Machutus  into  serviceable 
personages  there  needs  a  little  terse  semi-archaic  memoir  to  be 
printed  in  small  type  for  each  such  day,  as  is  done  very  nicely  in 
some  of  the  "  paroissiens."  Years  ago  I  meant  to  begin  this,  and 
rather  think  I  did — but  what  I  should  now  like  to  do  is  to  inter- 
leave a  Day  Hours  and  keep  it  beside  me,  and  present  it  to  you 
and  Lord  Beauchamp  before  the  5th  edition  comes,  to  do  with  it 
what  you  might  choose.  This  would  take  two  or  three  years  to  do 
decently,  each  clause  wants  so  much  weighing  and  tasting. 

In  advanced  ritual  he  took  a  somewhat  fearful  joy.  I 
recollect  in  1875  when  he  was  Chancellor  of  Lincoln,  and 
we  were  living  for  the  summer  in  a  house  at  Torquay,  he 
attended  by  preference  a  Church  of  moderate  ritual  rather 
than  a  decidedly  pronounced  Church  which  was  much 
nearer,  though  we  as  children  had  a  very  decided  bias  in 
favour  of  the  more  ornate  service.  I  can  recollect  too 
being  dimly  aware  that  he  was  rather  discouraging  to  our 
ritualistic  enthusiasm.  Latterly  he  never  attended  an  ornate 
service  without  making  two  or  three  criticisms  afterwards  as 
to  mistakes  of  ceremony  or  tradition  which  he  had  noticed. 
He  would  explain  with  great  minuteness  what  the  right 
usage  was ;  but  I  may  say  that  I  never  heard  him  do  so 
without  his  breaking  off  in  the  middle  to  say  that  after  all 
it  was  a  very  unimportant  matter,  and  that  he  was  almost 
ashamed  of  seeming  to  know  so  much  about  it. 

But   above   all   he    felt   strongly   that   the   tastes    and 


238  RITUAL   DEVELOPEMENT 

instincts  of  the  laity  should  be  sedulously  consulted.  He 
was  once  travelling  with  two  old  friends  in  a  secluded  part 
of  the  country  not  long  after  his  appointment  to  the 
Archbishopric.     He  wrote  in  his  Diary: — 

Strange  to  find  in  these  retired  country  places  the  same 
changes  going  on  in  ritual — chanted  psalms,  surpliced  choirs, 
Eastward  position,  coloured  stoles — everywhere.  The  gain  in 
reverence  doesn't  keep  pace  with  all  this.  Only  three  besides 
ourselves  (women)  at  Holy  Communion  this  morning— and  our 
two  selves  the  only  men  in  church  this  afternoon.  The  Dean  of 
Lincoln  once  said  to  me,  "They  destroy  service  by  services." 
How  are  we  going  wrong  ?  There  is  entering  in  something  that 
is  mechanical— «(?/  corporate,  while  the  individual  is  dying  out 
as  an  element  of  worship.  The  old  evangelical  service  was  more 
solemn,  more  reverent,  tho'  as  free  as  could  be  from  anything 
aesthetic.  The  clergy  are  sadly,  pathetically  in  earnest ;  they 
revolted  from  the  vanity  of  preachers.  But  we  are  finding  out 
that  without  preaching,  the  Word  will  not  be  known  (I  mean  of 
course  earnestly  studied  and  effective  preaching)  and  that  without 
the  Word  all  their  services  go  for  nothing  and  will  build  up 
nothing. 

Again  a  few  days  later  he  writes  : — 

Only  five  women  and  ourselves  at  Holy  Communion.  Church 
rather  fuller — but  these  short  surplices,  no  hoods,  and  coloured 
stoles  don't  seem  fit  for  men.  A  clear  sermon  this  afternoon, 
not  clever  but  comforting.  The  people  have  nice,  quiet  kind 
manners  here,  and  it  is  delightful  to  see  how  they  reverence  our 
old  Mrs  P.,  who  has  been  here  27  years,  is  82,  was  couched 
20  years  ago  and  sees  perfectly.  A  good  old  Churchwoman  to 
boot,  with  a  good  word  for  everyone  and  an  enjoyment  of  Church 
bells  and  music,  which  goes  well  with  deeper  things  in  this  class 
of  life. 

On  the  other  side  it  will  be  remembered  how  he  had 
written  in  1870  to  his  wife  of  a  church  with  high  ritual : — 

Sermon  fanciful,  irritating  and  untrue — all  so  sectarian... but 
I  could  not  sweep  this  away... I  should  have  too  strong  a  feeling 
against  alienating  those  who  had  found  some  comfort  somehow  in 
such  poor  and  dearly  bought  signs. 


DANGERS   OF   MATERIALISM  239 

Such  feeling  was  very  characteristic  of  him  ;  he  was  al- 
ways delighted  when  he  found  people,  especially  in  a  humble 
position,  taking  pleasure  in  ecclesiastical  things,  because  it 
gratified  his  sense  of  the  continuity  of  history,  dating  from 
the  times  when  the  Church  provided  for  the  poor  all  the 
artistic  and  educational  influences  that  reached  them. 

Yet  though  his  own  delight  in  Ritualism  was  free  from 
any  touch  of  materialism,  he  was  not  without  apprehension 
lest  its  elaboration  and  developement  should  bring  about  a 
subordination  of  the  thing  symbolised  to  the  symbol. 

"It  is  obvious,"  he  said  in  The  Seven  Gifts,  " how  easy  of  mal- 
administration, how  liable  to  misunderstanding,  how  subject  to 
misrepresentation,  every  external  rite  in  a  spiritual  dispensation 
may  be'"  3  and  again,  "  If  materialism  in  various  shapes  outside  the 
Church  alarms  many,  as  a  tendency  of  the  age,  we  have  read  and 
noticed  but  little  if  we  do  not  with  the  earliest  fathers  perceive, 
and  with  the  latest  observers  verify,  the  fact  that  within  the 
Church  there  is  sure  to  be  some  corresponding  and  correlative 
tendency.  There  is  a  materialistic  tone  and  temper  about  certain 
denunciations  and  directions  which  are  published  among  us. 
Materialists  might  point  to  them... to  show  that  the  identification 
of  Spirit  with  Matter  is  not  so  novel  a  doctrine  ^." 

His  diaries  at  Florence  in  later  years  are  full,  not  only 
of  his  interest  in  the  ritual,  but  his  musing  over  how  far  in 
reality  it  either  expressed  or  affected  religion.  He  attended 
many  of  the  great  ceremonials  in  the  Duomo,  being  often 
there  in  Easter  week.  On  one  occasion  he  was  surprised 
and  infinitely  touched  at  his  own  reception  by  the  Canons 
in  full  robes,  who  came  down  to  one  of  the  doors  to  meet 
him,  stood  in  two  rows  and  bowed  low  to  him  as  he  passed 
through. 

Speaking  of  the  Duomo,  he  wrote  in  1 893  : — 

A  Requiem  Mass  was  going  on  and  this  was  followed  by  the 
Absolution  of  the  Dead — the  moment  it  was  over,  the  sham  bier 


240  DIARY   AT   FLORENCE 

had  its  curtains  tucked  up  over  it  and  was  bundled  away  by  two 
choir-men,  and  the  solemnity  was  gone. 

Alas,  the  countenances  and  expressions  of  the  priests  were 
anything  but  elevated  or  elevating.  The  cruelty  of  the  State  is 
that  they  have,  by  rendering  it  impossible  for  parents  to  bring  up 
their  sons  to  be  priests  without  fear  of  starvation,  sunk  the  priest- 
hood, the  canonicate,  everything,  into  a  lower  class  of  life.  They 
have  cut  off  the  touch  of  the  Church  from  higher  classes  of 
cultivation — presently  they  will  sweep  them  off  as  ignorant  and 
unhelpful  to  the  general  welfare  of  minds  and  hearts.  They  are 
even  now  trying  to  eject  them  from  the  Church  houses. 

Jan.  i^th,  Sunday. — In  the  afternoon  to  the  Duomo  where 
Sir  T.  Dick  Lauder  had  secured  us  places  in  the  "Tribune," 
i.e.  an  organ  gallery  answering  to  "  Quarter  Gallery  "  at  St  Paul's. 
After  Vespers  and  Compline,  which  were  a  rather  rough  and 
swift  continuous  roar  in  unison,  and  nothing  near  so  beautiful 
as  our  English  Cathedral  Evensong,  there  was  an  annual  service 
of  Expiation  for  intercessions  against  Beste?nmias.  A  reparation 
for  all  the  injuries  uttered  against  all  divine  Beings  and  Blessings 
in  the  past  year.  To  this  came  parochial  confraternities  to  the 
number  of  some  hundreds  dressed  and  hooded  in  Misericordia 
fashion  all  in  white,  everyone  bearing  a  large  taper.  There  were 
twelve  canons  in  white  fur  cappas,  and  capellans  in  red,  and 
seminarists  for  choir — the  singing  and  voices  less  beautiful  than 
a  cathedral  choir  in  England.  Then  a  procession  of  all  these — 
the  length  of  the  church  and  half  again — and  hymns  etc.  in 
honour  of  the  Sacrament — borne  in  the  usual  way  by  the  Arch- 
bishop— and  a  strange  hymn  sung  by  a  professional  choir  in  the 
other  quarter  gallery,  and  responded  to  by  the  mass  of  the  con- 
gregation in  a  refrain  of  catching  music,  thus  : 

Deh  !  r  audace  lingua  frena 
Scelerato  peccator  ! 

grave  e  piena 

Scende  1'  ira  del  Signor. 

This  idea  of  worship,  this  idea  of  reparation,  this  endless  move- 
ment and  bustle,  from  the  Archbishop's  dressing  and  undressing, 
to  the  candle  lighting,  and  perpetual  trotting  in  and  out  of  eccle- 
siastics, were  very  much  the  ideas  of  materialism  and  ceremonial 
which  the  Reformation  arose  to  counteract.  And  though  all 
seems  un-English   now,   there   is  an  uncertainty  about   whether 


RITUAL  AT   FLORENCE  241 

these  ideas  are  really  slain  there :  and  if  so,  what  are  the  ideas 
that  live  there? 

As  a  picture  and  scene  nothing  could  be  grander — the  severe 
majesty  and  plain  vastness  of  the  Cathedral  in  its  shadows,  the 
floor  covered  with  white  rows  of  figures  and  twinkling  lights, 
the  leading  cross  with  its  white  ensign  banner  floating,  the  con- 
fraternities each  headed  by  a  plain  gaunt  cross  with  the  instru- 
ments of  the  passion— the  displeasing  blaze  and  gold  and  silver 
upholstery  of  the  high  altar. 

Oh  !  that  we  might  gather  the  scattered  lights.  Oh  !  that  we 
might  go  to  the  heart  of  the  first  days  and  revive  the  first  love, 
the  first  passion,  the  first  Christ — Exoriare  aliquis. 

In   1894  he  wrote  at  Florence: — 

March  22nd. — I  will  not  write  all  I  saw  those  days,  still  less 
all  I  ought  to  have  seen — but  only  the  odds  and  ends  which 
struck  me.  Lucy  and  I  saw  the  Blessing  of  the  Oils  for  sick  and 
for  Catechumens,  a  table  placed  before  the  Altar  in  what  would 
be  the  "presbytery"  at  Lincoln.  Bishop  seated  in  hideous  mitre 
down  on  his  cope — looking  east.  Chapter  round  him  in  three 
sides  of  a  square,  Archdeacon  beside  him;  after  each  oil  was 
compounded  and  consecrated,  each  Canon  approached  and  singing 
three  times  in  higher  and  higher  key  "Ave  Sanctum  Chrisma" 
or  "  Ave  Sanctum  Oleum,"  kissed  the  lips  of  the  vessel  containing 
it,  and  breathed  on  it. 

This  seems  to  be  "  Sacerdotalism "  if  you  like.  But  it  is 
difficult  to  penetrate  alien  ideas. 

Again,  many  people,  but  I  saw  no  one  who  was  apparently 
edified,  or  wished  to  be  edified,  or  thought  they  could  be  edified. 
But  again  it  is  difficult  to  enter  into  the  minds  of  other  folks, 
even  though  they  appear  to  stare  a  little  and  walk  about. 

On  the  24th  of  March  he  writes  :  — 

Easter  Eve. — A  strange  day,  thronged  with  thoughts  about 
what  we  and  all  men  are  making  of  Christ's  Gospel.  The  spec- 
tacle that  moved  for  four  hours  before  my  eyes  this  morning  as  we 
stood  in  the  high  tribune  above  the  Altar,  seeing  every  detail 
and  following  it,  has  filled  me  with  wonder  as  to  whether  He  will 
find  faith  upon  the  earth. 

The  Paschal  Candle — the  Prophecies  and  Expedition  to  the 
Baptistery — and  the  Firework  Dove. 

The   language  and  arrangement  of  the  whole  service,   mag- 

B.  II.  16 


242  EASTER   EVE   AT   FLORENCE 

nificent  indeed  to  see  and  hear,  were  for  a  midnight  service  be- 
tween Easter  Eve  and  Day.  They  are  the  preparation  for  a 
vast  Baptism — to  take  place  on  Easter  morning.  The  Scriptures 
are  a  Divine  leading  on  from  man's  Creation  to  man's  New 
Creation,  twelve  "  prophetiae,"  most  beautiful,  and  beautifully 
chosen — with  the  most  apt  anthems  and  the  most  noble  collects. 
There  was  a  procession  of  the  Archbishop  and  all  the  Clergy  to 
Baptistery  to  prepare  the  Font — the  robes  were  all  white  because 
of  the  Baptismal  ceremony  to  which  they  belong. 

And  this  was  all  done  in  the  full  light  of  this  white  morning — no 
one  baptized — no  one  to  be  baptized — the  whole  a  beautiful  husk. 

The  transference  of  the  hour  has  led  of  course  to  the  pushing 
back  all  the  other  hours  of  these  days  to  the  day  earlier. 

The  Paschal  Candle  was  slighter  and  lower,  and  the  ceremony 
less  touching  than  I  expected :  Procession  to  strike  light  at  West 
End,  Procession  back,  lights  at  intervals,  three  tapers  on  a  three- 
branched  pole — singing  at  each  "Lumen  Christi"  in  higher  and 
higher  key.  Then  the  tying  on  three  "grains  of  incense,"  large 
as  ostrich  eggs,  to  the  lowered  candle — then  the  lowering  it  again 
to  light  it — I  am  ashamed  to  feel  it  uninteresting.  But  the 
"  Exultet  jam  Angelica  turba  " — But  the  Prophecies — a  Canon, 
as  Deacon,  with  a  glorious  voice,  sang  the  very  fine  continuous 
strain,  attributed  to  Ambrose,  which  is  fashioned  on  the  thread 
"This  is  that  night  to  be  much  remembered,"  etc.  And  the 
Prophecies  are  twelve  great  selections  working  out  the  history 
of  "  salvation "  revealed  up  to  Resurrection  and  Regeneration. 
The  Deacon  sang  the  first  at  the  Epistle  corner  of  the  Altar, 
and  the  rest  he  read  to  himself  in  a  low  voice,  while  members 
of  the  several  orders  of  this  Church,  ending  with  a  Canon,  came 
one  by  one  up  into  a  temporary  ambo,  and  read  them  loud,  not 
alas  !  to  the  people  circulating  round  the  octagonal  choir,  with 
its  low  wall,  though  that  might  easily  have  been  done,  but  only 
to  the  clergy,  seminarists  and  choir.  The  "Exultet"  ends  with 
a  prayer  for  the  King — which  was  7iot  read — missed.  Are  not 
these  people  throwing  away  their  last  chances  ?  Is  not  the  whole 
now  7raA(iiovju.6vov '  ?  and  with  it,  how  much  more  ? 

But  must  not  the  English  Church  try  some  way  to  seize  on 
the  possibilities  of  edification  which  these  Holy  Services  of  the 
Holy  Week  present?  Why  should  we  not  add  the  Prophetiae 
to  our  Services  like  my  Nine  Lessons  ? 

^  Waxing  old.     Heb.  viii.  13. 


GROWTH   OF   RITUAL  243 

The  Dove  I  excuse  as  a  National  or  Civic  thing,  not  a  reUgious 
one.  It  really  is  absurd — a  poor  firework,  setting  off  at  the 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  and  kindling  a  hideous  pyre  with  ghastly 
explosions. 

But  what  he  feared  in  England,  as  much  perhaps  as 
the  growth  of  materialism,  was  the  developement  of  party 
spirit,  which  might  leave  not  only  the  most  essential 
matters,  but  even  the  more  important  elements  of  organic 
order,  and  make  a  battle  cry  of  things  which  in  themselves 
he  considered  interesting  and  beautiful  but  not  weighty. 

On  one  occasion  he  writes  in  his  Diary : — 

Interview  with  Bishop  of  Liverpool  as  to  his  permitting  the 
threatened  ritual  prosecution  of  Mr  B.  He  was  very  earnest  and 
oppressed  about  it,  seems  to  have  tried  honestly  his  best  to  avoid 
it.  But  these  people  like  B.  who  are  so  excellent  in  theory  of 
obedience,  never  obey  a  Bishop  even  when  he  speaks  of  his  own 
authority.  The  Bishop  had  behaved  magnanimously  in  consecrat- 
ing a  church  for  them.  Without  any  sense  of  honour,  the  man 
immediately  adopts  all  manner  of  illegal  practice. 

And  again  he  wrote  : — 

Celebrated  at  St  Paul's,  using  the  Eastward  position  as  the 
use  of  that  Church  is.  It  is  most  wretched,  since  these  litigations 
renewed  themselves,  to  feel  that  every  position  or  attitude  or  act 
is  watched  with  rigour  and  more  the  more  trivial  it  is.  It  is 
eating  away  the  soul  of  public  worship.  Many  clergymen  must 
feel  deadened  by  the  sense  that  every  act  in  public  worship  is  a 
sort  of  trivial  act  of  war  in  the  estimation  of  some  who  should  be 
fellow-worshippers  if  they  are  anything. 

Again,  after  the  Lincoln  Judgment  had  been  pro- 
nounced he  wrote  of  a  later  visit  to  St  Paul's : — 

Alas  !  those  minor  canons  who  are  allowed  their  own  way  in 
everything,  have  introduced  ablution  since  the  Lincoln  Judgment, 
and  have  turned  the  order  on  openness  in  consecration  into  a  new 
bit  of  ritualism,  lifting  the  cup  high  and  breaking  the  bread  and 
drawing  the  arms  apart  with  the  two  pieces  of  broken  bread. 
Thus,  what  was  meant  to  give  plainness  is  by  these  perverse  folk 
turned   to   a  far  more  ceremonious  mode.     Full  tilt  we   go  to 

16 — 2 


244  GROWTH    OF   RITUAL 

alienate  all  the  laity  we  can.  If  they  were  not  so  much  wiser 
than  the  clergy  they  would  be  all  gone  to  Dissent  before  this. 

And  again  : — 

In  the  fine  old  Church  at  E attended  a  "High  Church" 

Service.  Ridiculous  donnings  and  doffings  of  stoles  and  hoods — 
an  eleven  minutes'  sermon  !  These  are  the  things  which  the  old 
gentry-clergy  would  never  have  adopted,  and  they  are  more  Roman 
in  principle  than  what  people  foolishly  fear. 

And  again  : — 

Consecrated  St  Y 's ;   a  good  church  in  a  poor  district. 

There  were  six  candles  lighted  on  the  Altar  and  two  large  ones 
besides — I  consecrated  it  before  Evensong.  The  party  are  be- 
coming so  bound  to  their  little  usages  that  they  do  not  now  want 
their  Bishops  to  celebrate  Holy  Eucharist  for  them  because  they 
will  not  offer  "  Mass  "  on  the  Altar  under  a  Cross,  a  construction 
which  has  all  the  look  of  a  Tabernacle — so  as  to  prepare  the  way 
of  Reservation.  All  the  music  was  Gregorian,  gloomy,  and  its 
wheels  "  drave  heavily."  So  did  my  sermon — I  preached  from 
the  Lord's  teaching  to  His  disciples  given  before  "  the  Myriads," 
Luke  xii.,  and  mainly  against  party  spirit  and  its  woes,  and  tried 
to  lead  to  higher  tone.  But  there  was  a  spirit  against  such 
counsel  in  the  air  of  the  congregation.  Yet  their  zeal  will  surely 
be  led  in  sweet  ways.     TENOITO  !  ' 

After  being  present  on  one  occasion  at  a  keen  discussion 
on  ritualistic  matters,  in  which  he  had  himself  warmly 
joined,  he  says,  relating  the  whole  incident  in  his  Diary : — 

Our  ritualistic  and  anti-ritualistic  troubles  and  truces  are  not 
the  stuff  by  which  to  help  the  world.  We  are  busy  with  things 
among  ourselves  of  a  low  order,  while  we  ought  to  be  solving  and 
leading  to  high  issues  greater  problems  of  society. 

His  part  in  the  Royal  Commission  on  Ecclesiastical 
Courts  has  been  already  referred  to^;  but  it  will  not  be 
amiss  to  quote  some  extracts  from  his  letters  to  my 
mother  (in  1881)  showing  his  desire  to  understand  to  the 
full  what  was  demanded,  and  his  power  of  divining  the 
contingencies  which  might  arise. 

^  So  be  it.  ''  See  vol.  i.  p.  467. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   COURTS  245 

He  writes  : — 

Convocation,  Feb.   11,   1881. 

...We  have  determined  to  apply  for  a  Royal  Commission  to 
get  morals,  ritual,  doctrine,  courts  and  all  really  looked  into — I 
mean  the  present  confused  state  of  law  and  procedure  about  them. 
And  all  this  means  that  the  wheels  of  the  Church  are  revolving  in 
spite  of  the  cold  snowdrifts  across  the  lines — Deo  gratias — there  is 
life  and  there  is  help  in  Sion. 

And  again  : — 

Bishops'  Meeting,  May  21,   1881. 

...The  first  meeting  of  the  Royal  Commission  yesterday  about 
the  Ecclesiastical  Courts  was  very  interesting  to  a  boy  like  me. 
It  was  a  full  meeting  of  remarkable  men.  But  I  am  afraid  of  the 
issue  so  far.  Lord  Coleridge  and  the  lawyers  are  all  disposed  to 
shunt  this  great  question  which  rends  the  Church  upon  the  mere 
question  of  procedure  and  expenses.  But  they  are  to  be  reduced. 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Oxford  struck  boldly  out,  but  what  we 
want  to  discuss  are  principles.  And  Westcott  having  got  his  list 
of  historical  documents  ready,  I  got  Lord  Blachford  to  pass  this, 
that  we  might  have  them  published,  and  he  and  Professor  Stubbs 
and  I  stayed  behind  and  drew  up  a  scheme,  which  may  I  hope 
put  the  right  questions  at  last  before  us. 

Afterwards  I  went  to  Charles  Wood '  and  he  and  the  Dean  of 
Durham  (Lake)  and  Lord  Devon  and  I  dined  together  at  the 
Athenaeum,  so  that  I  am  trying  to  acquaint  myself  with  what  that 
side  want  and  wish.  There  is  much  to  sympathise  with  and  much 
to  be  admired  in  their  free  view  of  the  freedom  of  the  Church. 
But  without  wishing  to  take  any  coloured  view  it  does  seem  to 
me  that  the  result  of  the  E.C.U.  determinations  would  be  to 
r^-constitute  an  appeal  to  an  external  See.  There  is  no  hope  or 
help  for  it,  if  they  will  have  no  appeal  to  the  Crown  in  any  form. 
This  will  be  our  final  crux. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  connection  with  this,  his 
speech  to  the  Diocesan  Conference  in  the  same  year,  and 
his  careful  distinction  of  spiritual  judge  from  a  judge  who 
is  in  the  modern  sense  a  "  cleric'"'." 

This  point  again  is  emphasised  in  the  following  draft 

^  Now  Viscount  Halifax.  ^  See  vol.  i.  p.  468. 


246  LETTER   ON    RITUAL 

in  my  father's  hand  on  the  subject  of  Ritual.  There  is 
no  clue  as  to  the  identity  of  the  friend  to  whom  it  was 
written.  But  from  the  fact  that  it  was  carefully  preserved 
I  have  no  doubt  that  he  considered  it  important. 


Private. 
My  DEAR  Friend, 


Truro. 

Dec.  29,  1879. 


In  the  first  place  I  feel  very  sure  that  you  attach  too  much  by 
very  much  to  my  relation  to  different  sides  in  the  question,  and 
also  to  my  knowledge  and  private  help.  But  apart  from  all  that, 
I  really  think  you  must  not  quarrel  with  the  idea  of  Bishops  not 
taking  part  in  these  things  at  this  stage.  Looking  at  it  historically, 
they  have  universally  been  judges  when  a  matter  has  reached  a 
certain  stage — not  parties  nor  counsel;  they  always  have  "given 
their  judgment"  right  or  wrong,  not  prepared  things  for  judgments. 

Then  again,  they  are  the  KvfScpvfJTat  or  "  steersmen  "  and  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  be  taking  to  pieces  and  re-examining  the 
engines  through  which  the  Trrevfxa  or  steam  is  propelling  the  ship 
of  God.  ■  While  they  are  divines  and  students  t/iat  is  their  work, 
but  once  put  at  the  helm,  their  work  is  changed. 

That  seems  to  have  been  the  view  which  sagacious  Gamaliel 
took  of  the  duty  of  Pontiffs  in  older  days.  Their  work  is  fairly  cut 
out  for  them  by  usage.  As  to  the  present  question — the  evil  you 
speak  of  is  gross  and  crying.  I  was  obliged  to  be  present  a  year 
ago  at  a  service  which  the  performer  regarded  as  the  on/y  possible 
catholic  worship,  and  his  laborious  attempts  to  impress  this  on 
the  finest  race  of  fishermen  you  ever  beheld,  ended  in  spiritual 
blankness  of  darkness — and  entire  Church  emptiness.  But  such 
a  performance  !  a  Papal  Mass  at  St  Peter's,  a  French  one  at  the 
Madeleine,  some  especially  English  usages,  and  Methodism  inter- 
vening at  every  pause, — all  these  had  streaks  visible  to  any 
practised  eye,  or  any  reader  of  liturgiology — and  then  the  farrago 
of  music. 

I  am  sure  you  do  not  exaggerate  the  mess  things  are  in — and 
the  rashness  with  which  insufficient  information  is  being  acted  on. 
However,  I  do  not  possess  sufficient  information  to  put  these  things 
right,  nor  sufficient  time  to  study  them.  I've  looked  into  them 
of  course,  a  very  little,  but  that  little  is  enough  to  show  the  compli- 


SACERDOTAL  VESTMENTS  247 

cation  and  difficulty  of  this  branch  of  archaeology.  One  thing 
was  patent,  the  untenableness  of  Roman  usages  in  England.  I 
could  never  consider  it  an  open  question  whether  Roman  or 
Sarum  colours  were  better,  supposing  it  demonstrated  that  the 
Edwardian  vestments  were  the  legal  ones. 

But  I  only  wish  all  deference  and  disposition  to  be  compre- 
hensive, and  a  predisposition  to  what  is  authorized.  I  am  not 
clear  on  this  preliminary  point,  and  do  not  see  a  hope  of  satisfying 
myself.  That  many  are  certain  proves  nothing,  I  fear,  for  it  is 
one  of  the  obscure  points  on  which  whoever  thinks  he  sees  light 
clings  to  it  desperately. 

That  they  are  the  only  lawful  dress  is  (I  feel  satisfied)  quite 
unproved. 

Moreover,  to  be  perfectly  candid,  I  do  not  think  them  sacer- 
dotal in  origin.  Therefore  I  am  not  clear  as  to  how  they  became 
endued  with  the  sacredness  they  claim.  By  usage?  That  cuts 
both  ways. 

By  Rubrics  ?  Then  I  am  thrown  back  again  on  the  difficulty 
of  drawing  distinct  conclusions.  And  if  they  are  not  proved,  then 
expediency  comes  in  again.  (Again  I  am  not  sure  that  ritual 
ought  not  to  be  a  varying  expression  from  age  to  age.  Truth 
is  single  in  essence,  but  multiform  in  presentment.  Is  not  ritual 
a  presentment?) 

I  have  said  enough  to  show  that  I  should  not  be  a  serviceable 
member  of  a  Committee,  and  to  show  that  I  doubt  whether 
a  Committee  could  do  good. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Truron. 

In  the  latter  paragraphs  he  touches  on  a  point  which, 
as  will  be  seen,  is  of  considerable  importance.  If  Ritual  is 
an  expression  of  worship,  valuable  only  as  an  expression, 
it  must  be  though  formulated  not  formalised  ;  it  must  be 
vital  not  mechanical,  elastic  not  stereotyped. 

"  I  am  very  desirous  of  real  elasticity,"  he  said,  when  in 
speaking  of  Missions  (see  p.  462)  he  touched  on  the  changes 
that  must  be  made  in  attitudes  of  devotion  or  colours  of 
vestments,  in  accordance  with  the  habits  and  symbolism  of 
foreign  nations. 


248  SYMBOLISM  aet.  54 

Symbolism  must  indeed  be  formulated  in  order  that  its 
language  may  be  understood.  Writing  in  1884  to  his  wife 
about  a  private  chapel  adapted  from  a  room,  he  describes  it 
as  having  "  everything  necessary,  but  as  unlike  the  Church 
as  can  be.  I  hope  it  gives  more  sense  of  reality,  but 
I  do  not  see  how  it  can.  It  is  all  rather  too  peculiar  to  be 
availing  in  that  sense  to  any  other  person  and  that  is  why 
true  symbolism  is  so  very  valuable  as  a  perfect  language." 

But  the  language  of  symbolism  must  have  its  growth, 
and  thus  its  correspondence  with  the  race  and  the  age. 

The  ritual  of  the  English  Church  must  be  English 
ritual,  must  not  be  a  mixture  of  "  a  Papal  mass  at 
St  Peter's,  a  French  one  at  the  Madeleine,  some  especially 
English  usages,  and  methodism  intervening  at  every  pause." 

How  he  dealt  with  a  ritual  case  cannot  be  better  shown 
than  by  the  instance  of  the  Lincoln  Judgment,  which 
from  the  year  1888  had  begun  to  occupy  his  mind,  and 
which  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  separate  chapter ;  his 
general  view  can  hardly  be  more  beautifully  given  than 
by  a  letter  that  he  wrote  to  me,  when  I  was  an  under- 
graduate at  King's  College,  Cambridge,  on  the  whole 
question  of  public  worship;  part  of  it  I  printed  in  Arch- 
bishop Latid,  a  Study,  but  I  think  it  better  to  give  the 
whole  letter,  as  he  was  speaking  very  fully  and  unreservedly 
on  a  subject  very  dear  to  his  heart ;  he  was  in  bed  at  the 
time,  having  undergone  a  slight  operation,  and  being  freed 
from  the  pressure  of  business,  had  more  time  than  usual  on 
his  hands.    It  is  the  longest  letter  I  ever  received  from  him. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
Oct.  2S^^^  1883. 
My  dearest  Son, 

I  am  obliged  to  write  in  bed,  so  you  will  excuse  my 
pencil.  I  am  getting  on  very  well,  though  I  shall  be  some  time 
before  I  am  what  Warham  calls  "  a  habile  man  " — but  I  sleep  well, 
and  lie  still,  and  get  through  a  good  deal  of  reading,  and  order  all 


VIEW   OF   WORSHIP 


249 


my  letters,  and  eat  all  they  will  give  me.  The  doctor  himself  says 
I  '■'■look  like  an  impostor,  though  I  should  cease  to  do  so  if  I 
set  foot  to  the  ground." 

Thank  you  for  your  two  letters  very  much.  Your  election  at 
the  Union'  is  splendid — and  with  young  Chamberlain^ — how  odd  ! 

I  wish  the  authorities  had  the  courage  to  act  on  the  stimulus 
you  have  been  giving  amongst  you  to  compulsory  chapel.  I  am 
sure  your  account  of  the  matter  is  as  true  as  it  is  natural. 

There  were  always  100  to  120  at  morning  chapel  when  I  was 
a  scholar  at  Trinity  and  of  those  three-fourths  would  not  have  had 
force  enough  to  get  up  and  go  if  there  had  been  no  rule,  and  they 
were  very  glad  to  go,  and  if  they  had  had  leave  to  be  marked  at 
the  gate  they  would  have  been  marked  and  would  have  been  sorry. 
And  they  were  and  are  all  their  lives  better  for  having  gone.  The 
side-chapel  may  be  very  well  for  the  time  of  necessity  in  which  we 
live,  but  I  should  mourn  over  the  silence  of  King  Henry's  glorious 
choir — it  looks  like  another  ebb.  But  I  have  always  felt  in  a  very 
unpeopled  church  as  if  somehow  (on  a  week-day  at  least,  or  at  an 
inconvenient  hour)  the  fact  that  the  Church  is  really  spiritual  and 
that  "we  are  come  not  to  the  Mount  Sion,  but  to  an  innumerable 
company  "  comes  out,  and  I  feel  among  them  in  the  Psalms  and 
Prayers.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  say  the  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer  as  I  went  to  and  from  school  or  else  in  my  rough 
chapel  in  a  great  unused  room — and  I  always  used  to  say  "  The 
Lord  be  with  you,"  and  be  sure  that  there  were  plenty  about  to 
reply,  "And  with  thy  spirit." 

As  to  Public  Worship  I  think  that  there  is  real  depth  in  what 
Dr  Westcott  said  in  his  enigmatic  way^ — besides  the  Life  and 
Self  (which  in  themselves  cannot  be  offered  perhaps  in  a  real  sense 
except  by  union  with  that  element,  our  Lord's  humanity,  which 
He  has  placed  in  union  with  our  life  and  the  life  of  our  species 
for  this  among  other  purposes) — besides  Life  and  Self  we  surely 
ought  to  present  (not  only  what  we  are,  but)  what  we  have  for  a 

^  I  was  elected  on  to  the  Committee  of  the  Union. 

^  Mr  Austen  Chamberlain,  now  M.P.  and  Civil  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 

^  Bishop  Westcott,  when  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Cambridge, 
being  a  Fellow  of  King's,  used  to  hold  a  little  meeting  of  undergraduates 
after  chapel  in  his  rooms  at  which  a  paper  was  read  and  discussed  ;  it  was 
open  to  all  the  College  :  the  Theory  of  Worship  was  being  discussed,  and 
someone  said,  " But  is  not  the  Life  the  Sacrifice?  "  The  Professor  smiled,  and 
said  eagerly,  "Yes,  but  what  becomes  of  the  Hymn  and  the  Garland  and  the 
white  Vestments  of  the  Priest  ?  " 


250  IDEA   OF   WORSHIP  aet.  54 

time — the  things  which  in  this  world  our  Spirit  or  Self  is  allowed 
to  possess  €is  XPV'^'-^  ^  ^^^  which  it  will  have  to  lay  down. 

Of  all  these,  the  results  and  the  instruments  of  Art  are  the 
av^os"  and  those  results  which  exist  and  pass,  exist  and  pass,  are 
born  and  die,  are  the  subtlest  and  most  delicate  and  perfect — 
and  those  also  which  have  an  image  of  eternity  about  them  are  at 
the  other  pole  of  perfectness. 

Form — colour — order — movement^music — have  somehow  to 
be  offered  as  well  as  thought— zrid  that  which  is  ours  only  instan- 
taneously, Ti?ne,  must  have  its  dedication  too. 

Drop  that  for  a  minute. 

The  yearning  (which  is  so  undeniable  in  man  for  God)  requires 
speech.  The  roughest  and  rudest  come  together  to  speak  to  God 
— in  their  plainest  way  He  speaks  with  them  and  they  know  it. 
When  they  are  delivered,  or  being  delivered,  from  material  terrors 
with  regard  to  Him,  only  the  best  persevere  (those  in  whom  the 
yearning  is,  as  I  say,  for  God  and  not  for  comfort)  in  following 
out  what  they  find,  that  the  listening  to  the  records  of  His  reve- 
lation through  ages  and  to  the  substance  of  it,  and  then  speaking 
in  common  to  Him,  and  exhorting  one  another  about  Him  and 
about  the  hindrances  in  getting  to  Him,  and  the  seeing  His  hand 
in  difficulties,  affect  their  lives  more  than  anything  else  does. 
This  simplest  plainest  worship  in  common  strengthens,  as  well 
as  reminds,  them  to  re-dedicate  themselves,  their  lives  and  spirits 
to  Him.  Nothing  can  eradicate  the  conviction,  the  experimental 
conviction,  they  all  entertain,  that  it  is  not  the  exercise  of  the 
worship,  but  an  undoubted  answer  made  to  their  worship,  which 
is  the  strength.  They  sought  a  Presence,  and  they  have  found 
it.  Surely  they  are  not  wrong  in  gathering,  that  what  obtained 
so  gracious  an  answer  is  acceptable  to  the  Answerer.  6a-[xrj 
eiSoK/'as  ^. 

Now  as  life  becomes  more  beautiful  in  the  sensuous  region, 
the  question  comes,  "  Is  this  a  new  world  we  have  found  for  our- 
selves ?  "  "  Is  it  a  region  into  which  we  shall  enter  and  do  without 
God  there  ?  "  or  "  is  it  capable  of  being  sanctified  like  all  else  we 
have  known  in  plainer  ways?"     There  is  a  trembhng  about  the 

^  For  the  using.  ^  Flower,  ornament,  grace. 

^  A  variation,  probably  intentional,  on  the  phrase  in  Eph.  v.  2,  eh  dffurju 
eiuoias,  a  sweet-smelling  savour, — possibly  suggested  by  avdpunroi  evdoKias, 
Luke  ii.  14,  It  will  be  observed  that  the  Archbishop  uses  the  word  evdoKla  in 
the  following  paragraph. 


i883  PSALLAM   ET   MENTE  251 

question.  But  surely  it  has  been  rightly  answered — and  the 
dedication  of  all  these  perfectnesses  is  lawful  and  right — and  the 
glory  of  Art  goes  up  to  Him  from  those  who  have  it  ets  XRV^*-^,  ^i^d 
the  evSoKLa^. 

But  now  I  own  I  have  for  years  past  looked  on  pleased  but 
anxious  to  see  our  worship  all  over  England  getting  ornamental — 
the  white  garments  and  the  chanting  and  the  windows  trouble  me 
with  a  singular  trouble  while  I  hope  all  is  well.  I  can  explain  by 
an  almost  ridiculous  thing,  what  I  mean.  I  never  can  endure 
to  use  a  Psalter  with  notes  to  every  syllable,  or  even  elaborately 
pointed  for  singing.  I  feel,  in  spite  of  all  I  do,  that  the  spirit 
vanishes  from  the  words,  and  that  I  become  as  if  I  were  chanting 
Vedas.  I  cannot  worship  unless  I  can  trafc/i  the  pointing  and 
sing  it,  or  else  be  silent,  and  then  I  say,  "  How  fares  it  ^\^th 
those  singing  men  and  boys  ?  "  and  the  sound  of  it  often  strikes 
me  as  sound  only.  Then  I  long  to  teach  them  the  Psalms' 
meaning,  and  of  course  at  Lincoln  I  did — and  wish  the  clergy 
would  all  do  it.  Else  I  fear  I  shall  come  to  think  "  that  we  don't 
k/ww  that  what  we  do  is  acceptable,"  except  that  we  can't  find 
out  what  else  to  do  than  what  seems  to  be  actually  in  man  to  do. 

For  ourselves  I  think  the  only  thing  is  to  throw  consciousness 
into  it  all — to  fling  up  before  each  attempt  at  an  elaborate  piece 
of  Service,  before  each  change  of  chant,  before  each  sitting  down 
to  even  practise  on  the  organ,  the  thought  "  This  is  Thine,  O  Lord, 
of  Thee,  in  Thee ; — O  make  it  also  for  Thee  in  my  heart — and 
unto  Thee  in  the  Heavenly  places." 

If  we  make  our  worship  into  mere  business,  it  may  become 
z^welevated  business  like  any  other — but  it  is  an  offering  of  time 
and  effort  and  we  can  add  to  that  offering  all  the  best  and  most 
beautiful  things  we  know — and  this  may  then,  must,  influence 
Life  in  the  most  powerful  way — and  I  can't  see  how  we  can  doubt 
the  evhoKia  in  it. 

Your  most  loving  father, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

^  This  is  an  obscure  sentence.  The  Warden  of  Keble  suggests  that  it 
means,  "The  glory  of  Art  goes  up  to  God  from  those  who  have  it  for  useful 
ends  {els  xp^"'"'),  ^"d  the  dehght  {evSoKla)  in  Art  goes  up  to  God  from  those 
who  enjoy  it."  Tlpbs  XPW^"  is  used  by  Aristotle  to  point  the  antithesis  between 
utilitarian  and  imitative  arts.     Cf.  Arist.  Mti.  I.  i.  081  b. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

DIARIES   AND   LETTERS. 

"  Qui  praeest,  in  solicitudinc.^''     St  Paul  ad  Rom. 

Early  in  the  year  1889  the  proceedings  on  the  Lincoln 
case  began  before  the  Archbishop.  How  constantly  this 
matter,  not  only  in  itself,  but  its  causes,  its  possible  effects, 
and  all  cognate  questions  were  in  his  mind,  will  be  seen 
from  the  frequent  entries  which  bear  on  the  subject  in  the 
Diaries. 

Jan.  I  St.  He  would  be  a  very  blind  man  or  a  very  hard 
man  who  would  say  that  the  masses  of  cloud  which  overhang 
the  hills  that  stand  round  Jerusalem  are  not  fraught  with  formidable 
material.  And  he  would  be  a  very  unfaithful  one  who  did  not  say 
that  their  showers  might  make  glad  the  City  of  God  and  their 
lightnings  themselves  clear  the  air  and  restore  the  balance.  The 
purpose  of  God  must  be  good  towards  us.  He  has  wrought  much 
by  us.  However  unworthy  and  however  unlike  the  Saints  and 
statesmen  of  old  time,  yet  we  cannot  feel  that  He  has  sent  us  to 
our  places  each  and  all  to  destroy  us,  and  through  us  to  lower 
the  Church  of  England.  In  hours  of  depression  one  may  feel 
as  if  some  kind  of  end  were  at  hand.  But  it  is  far  more  likely 
to  be  waives  (birth-pangs) — pains  fruitful  with  the  future. 

The  sudden  revival  of  a  Spiritual  tribunal,  untouched  for 
ages  by  the  temporal  powers,  and  bearing  no  trace  of  them — the 
direction  of  its  powers  against  one  of  the  saintliest  of  men  and 
meekest — which  may  lead  to  a  great  toleration,  "howbeit  they 
think  not  so,"  and  a  greater  freedom  and  greater  charity  of  mind. 
Why  not  expect  that  rather  than  error,  confusion,  destruction  ? 


i889       THE   PRINCE   OF   WALES   AT   LAMBETH        253 

But  how  many  problems — Temperance — Purity — Slavery — the 
wretchedness  of  the  poorest  classes  at  home — their  ignorance — 
their  wildness — their  false  friends — claims  for  the  increase  of 
the  Episcopate — the  jealousy  of  Episcopal  position— Patronage 
and  its  mischiefs — Clergy  Discipline — the  failings  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Societies — the  repression  of  Slavery  in  Africa — the  Spanish 
Bishopric — the  Turkish  threatenings  of  the  Assyrian  Mission — 
Natal  and  South  Africa. 

On  the  7th  January  the  Prince  of  Wales  came  to 
Lambeth  to  receive  a  Deputation  of  Working  Men  on  the 
subject  of  providing  a  "  People's  Park "  for  the  District. 
The   Archbishop  wrote : — 

Went  up  to  receive  Prince  of  Wales  and  twelve  Representative 
Working  Men  at  Lambeth.  The  latter  to  read  him  an  address 
on  the  purchase  of  "  the  Lawn,"  South  Lambeth,  for  a  Public 
Park — and  its  great  importance  to  them  and  their  children.  Their 
chairman  read  a  natural  honest  speech,  and  nothing  could  be 
better  than  the  tone  and  line  of  the  Prince's  answer.  They  were 
delighted  by  his  strong  shake  of  the  hand.  '•  Not  the  tips  of 
his  fingers,"  they  said,  "  working  men  have  feelings  and  they 
would  not  like  that."  And,  "  It  isn't  everybody  that  education 
refines  as  it  has  him,"  said  a  blacksmith.  "When  he's  king  I 
shall  be  able  to  say  that  I've  shook  hands  with  the  Crown,"  said 
an  engine-driver. 

Octavia  Hill  and  James  Knowles'  and  my  wife  were  the  only 
people  admitted — besides  his  Equerry  and  Donaldson"  and 
Phillips  ^ 

It  will  do  good  and  he  spoke  so  well. 

Dr  Ogle^  enjoins  much  care. 

On  the  9th  he  notes : — 

Is  the  laying  down  of  the  flesh  a  renewal  of  limitations  ?  or 
is  it  an  imposing  of  new  limitations  for  the  time — as  being  a 
cutting  off  of  the  means  and  channels  which  we  had  of  commu- 
nication with  the  creation  of  God — are  we  from  thence  alone  with 
God  ?  cut  off  from  communication  and  thrown  inward  on  self 
alone  ? 

1  Editor  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

-  The  Rev.   St  Clair  Donaldson,  Chaplain. 

^  Mandeville  Phillips,   Secretary.  ■*  His  doctor. 


254  WHITGIFT  COLLEGE  aet.  59 

Another  day  he  writes : — 

A  terrible  hour  with  a  bad  old  priest  of  74.  Clever — versutus 
— contra  cives  animosus — sui  indulgens — cui  vilis  est  virtus  et  sua 
et  aliena — pestis  parochiae — ecclesiae  fax — puteus  veneni.  Deus 
misereatur  mihi  si  verbis  si  vultu  si  fabulis  decipias. 

In  the  evening  a  most  happy  tea  with  my  old  people  at 
Whitgift,  of  whom  I  have  already  appointed  14  in  this  short 
time.  Their  love  of  their  Warden,  and  loyalty  to  "his  present 
Grace  "  and  their  devoutness  at  prayers  and  attention  to  a  short 
sermon  which  I  gave  them  on  Charity  and  Temper,  truly  refreshing 
in  these  days.    But  it  was  instructive  to  me  in  a  very  important  way. 

I  proposed  to  the  whole  table-full  that  we  should  let  the 
College  be  removed  to  widen  the  street,  and  rebuilt  in  some  pretty 
quiet  country  place.  They  said  almost  in  horror  that  not  a  brick 
of  the  College  must  be  touched — dear  old  place — and  that  they 
much  preferred  Croydon  to  any  country  place. 

Then  I  said  would  it  not  be  agreeable  to  them  to  live  at  their 
own  homes  with  their  own  friends,  and  have  a  weekly  allowance 
in  full  for  whatever  they  now  enjoyed?  There  was  quite  a  clamour 
in  answer — "No!  no!"  they  almost  shouted;  "College  was  the 
thing — we  are  all  proud  of  the  College'." 

To  his  son  Hugh,  at  Eton. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

Conv.  of  St  Paul,  1889. 

Ja7i.  25. 
Dearest  Hughie, 

Don't  forget,  dear  lad,  to  read,  if  it  is  only  two  or 
three  verses  of  the  Bible  morning  and  evening  and  make  a  little 
short  prayer  out  of  them — (on  Sunday  I  hope  you  will  read  a 
little  more ;  for  devotional  use,  not  merely  school  work).  I  hope 
you  will  have  a  bright  and  happy  Sunday.  We  have  only  had 
the  sun  twice  since  you  went. 

Ever  your  loving  father, 

Edw.  Cantuar, 

Don't  drop  Robert  out  of  writing  your  name.  It  is  one  of 
the  very  oldest  names  in  the  family — and  you'll  lose  your  inherit- 
ance some  day  by  not  using  your  name. 

1  The  Archbishop  was  of  the  same  mind,  and  strongly  against  the  sup- 
pression of  the  College. 


1889  VISIT   TO   BISHOP   LIGHTFOOT  255 

On  the  9th  of  Feb.  he  went  to  Winchester  with  my 
mother  and  eldest  sister,  as  usual ;  in  the  afternoon  he 
went  on  to  Bournemouth  to  see  Bishop  Lightfoot  who 
was  lying  ill  there ;  he  writes  : — 

Spent  this  day  semper  acerbum,  semper  honoratum,  with  wife 
and  Nellie  at  Winchester.  The  grass  in  its  sweetness  of  turf  and 
gray  cloister  as  ever,  and  the  Bay  growing  up  again. 

Dear  boys  in  Fifth  Chamber  received  us  quite  affectionately — 
Martin's  table  is  still  by  its  pillar  in  the  middle  and  the  new 
window  shines  into  the  dark  corner  he  loved — and  outside  of  it 
the  corbel  which  they  have  carved  as  like  him  as  they  could.  It 
is  said  that  there  is  a  beautiful  tone  now  in  College  and  they 
have  gained  1 1  Fellowships  in  three  years.  How  he  would  have 
rejoiced  in  their  joy.  But  his  was  a  fatal  year.  Reid,  Stamp, 
Stockdale,  another,  and  He  gone  out  of  that  one  year.  These 
"  hyacinthi  succisi  aratro "  are  not  less  mysterious  to  us  than  to 
Virgil — we  only  can  bear  them  better. 

Vespers  in  Cathedral. 

On  to  Bournemouth — Dunelm  strangely  better,  colour,  ex- 
pression, brightness,  all  trickling  back  to  life.  God  give  him 
again  to  all  and  to  me! 

Adding  on  the  next  day : — 

At  night  Dunelm  spoke  of  the  trial  after  he  was  quiet  in  bed. 
He  said,  "  I  think  it  will  after  all  come  out  right  and  be  a  great 
blessing  to  the  Church ;  I  can't  help  feeling  somehow  that  it 
will."  He  said  with  tears,  "  I  want  to  tell  you  how  good  God 
has  been  to  me  in  this  illness — I  have  had  so  many  happinesses 
— seeds  I  had  sown  have  been  coming  up  in  the  diocese  so  fast, 
long  before  I  looked  for  it."  He  had  the  reredos  of  the  church 
which  he  is  building  at  Sunderland,  "  St  Ignatius,"  the  drawing  of 
it,  in  the  course  of  the  evening. 

To  his    Wife. 

Bournemouth. 
10  Feb.  1889. 
My  Dearest, 

I  came  quite  comfortably  here — find  the  Bishop 
justifying  the  good  things  said  of  him.  In  appearance  his  face  is 
longer  but  they  say  there  has  been  a  great  improvement  in  this 
last  fortnight. 


256  BISHOP    LIGHTFOOT'S    ILLNESS  aet.  59 

This  morning  I  celebrated  the  Holy  Communion  with  him 
and  his  three  loving  chaplains — to  his  great  happiness.  It  was 
clear  he  had  regained  the  power  of  concentration, — I  should  think 
perfectly — nothing  could  be  more  beautiful  than  the  intensity  of 
his  expression.  Afterwards  he  patted  my  head  several  times — a 
thing  which  I  never  before  knew  him  to  do. 

This  morning  at  St  A — — 's  church  the  clergyman,  not  a 
ritualist,  gave  a  long  sermon  on  the  Lincoln  case — justifying  the 
six  points  with  "  scriptural "  arguments  just  of  the  style  which 
could  equally  well  be  used  to  prove  that  Noah's  Ark  was  fitted 
up  with  stalls  and  an  east  window  and  that  Noah  was  a  High 
Church  clergyman.  I  sat  rather  like  a  man  listening  to  the 
condemned  sermon,  just  opposite  to  him,  but  I  felt  sure  that 
some  very  spicy  passages  were  dropped  as  he  happened  to  know 
me  by  sight. 

Give  my  best  love  to  the  girls,  and  to  the  Chaplains — I  expect 
them  to  "give  notice"  of  withdrawal  from  the  object  of  such  elo- 
quence from  a  thousand  pulpits — but  seriously,  if  a  quiet  man  can 
be  moved  on  to  the  ritualist  side  as  this  man  was  by  the  prosecu- 
tion, what  is  the  effect  of  it  through  all  England  I  wonder. 

Ever  your  loving  husband, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

To  Sir  Arthur  Gordon. 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

9  March,  1889. 
My  dear  Gordon, 

The  lone  life  has  settled  down  upon  you.     And  it 
grieves  me  to  think  of  it. 

The  terribleness  of  the  first  excitement  of  the  shock  being 
over,  I  want  to  write  to  you  and  say  how  well  I  know  that  there 
comes  a  time  still  less  easy  to  endure — I  know  it  by  sharp  sorrows 
of  my  own.  And  I  remember  it  was  brought  to  a  close  {for  it 
is  no  good  time)  by  the  present  Bishop  of  Truro's  saying  to  me 
that  the  one  thing  to  bring  back  the  mind,  as  distinct  from  the 
soul's  hope,  to  rest,  was  to  determine  never  to  picture  to  oneself 
how  it  7night  have  been  different,  if  only  such  and  such  things 
had  been  done,  and  how  different  it  would  be  now  if  the  grief 
had  not  come. 


i889  LETTER  TO   SIR  A.    GORDON  257 

We  must  learn  that  God  has  used  whatever  happened  to  work 
out  His  own  purpose — and  we  must  fling  ourselves  into  the 
present,  as  it  is,  if  God's  will  in  our  trial  is  to  have  its  perfect 
work.  I  shall  never  forget  the  thrill  of  seeing  the  announcement 
of  your  loss.  Then  I  thought  you  would  be  coming  to  England ; 
and  after  that  I  would  let  a  little  while  go  by  that  I  might  not 
touch  a  wrong  string.  Now  I  can  feel  and  know  where  you  are 
in  thought. 

I  am  so  thankful  for  that  short  sight  of  Lady  Gordon  at 
Addington.  Her  noble  spirit  shone  out  even  in  that  little  space. 
And  it  seemed  as  if  a  long  future  of  noble  service  in  some  kind 
were  before  her — and  now  it  is — in  some  grander  inconceivable 
form,  but  with  all  that  was  high  and  true  in  earth's  best  loves 
still  powerful  in  the  spirit,  wherever  or  however  it  lives. — This 
we  knozv. 

We  are  all  full  of  the  thought  of  your  children  too.  I  wish 
I  knew  how  I  could  be  of  any  use  to  your  boy  and  repay  him 
something  of  the  good  which  his  father's  friendship  did  me  when 
I  was  so  young  in  spirit  and  so  young  in  this  world. 

My  dear  Gordon,  I  am  afraid  that  these  are  very  helpless 
aidless  outpourings.  There  is  only  one  excuse  for  them — it  is 
that  Calvin  says  "/«  magnis  tentationibus  juvat  solitiido — sediamen 
ut  in  propinquo  sintamici  \"  Your  friends  stand  round  you  wishing 
they  could  be  of  use  to  you — but  still  believing  that  there  is  some 
good  even  in  the  wish.  May  God  and  His  Spirit  in  Jesus  Christ 
do  what  we  cannot. 

Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  April  7th  he  writes : — 

Preached  St  James'  Chapel  Royal.  This  is  of  all  performances 
the  most  miserably  dead — a  congregation  of  formal  people  whom 

nothing  can  wake  to  a  momentary  interest.     A and  B 

had  both  determined  they  would  preach  in  such  a  strain  that 
they  would  make  people  turn  their  eyes  to  the  pulpit.     But  they 

failed  (though  I  heard  they  voted  B slightly  improper).     I 

had  said  I  would  never  preach  there  again  but  would  rather  pay 
the  fine.  But  as  it  fell  I  took  a  good  deal  of  pains  to  write  a 
characteristic  sermon  for  them  upon  the  Duchess  of  Cambridge's 

^  In  great  trials  solitude  is  best — yet  not  without  friends  ne.ir  at  hand. 
B.  II.  17 


258  DISARMAMENT  aet.  59 

death '.  I  think  one  or  two  people  were  a  little  touched  who 
had  known  her  very  well,  not  by  anything  I  said,  but  by  the 
eloquence  of  a  life  which  seemed  as  if  it  never  would  end,  and 
in  its  even  tenour  never  need. 

The  next  day  the  papers  gave  a  truly  ludicrous  account  by 
someone  who  had  certainly  not  heard  a  word  of  what  I  did  say, 
but  wrote  a  concise  statement  apparently  of  what  he,  knowing 
nothing,  would  have  said. 

The  Bishop  of  Durham  to  the  Archbishop. 

Bournemouth. 

April  2>oth,  1889. 
My  dearest  Archbishop, 

I  trust  you  are  keeping  well  notwithstanding  the  worry 
of  the  times.  May  God  give  you  wisdom  to  steer  the  ship  amidst 
the  rocks  and  shoals,  for  indeed  it  will  require  a  steady  and  strong 
hand,  and  a  keen  eye. 

Yours  affectionately, 

J.    B.    DUNELM. 

To  Professor   Westcott. 

{On  "A   Christian  Policy  of  Peace.") 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

fune  i6th,  1889. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

I  have  read  several  times  over  with  all  the  attention 
I  could  your  most  interesting  letter,  before  I  could  satisfy  myself 
that  I  had  not,  and  could  not  invent,  anything  to  say  against  it, 
which  was  no  doubt  what  I  was  expected  to  do  as  a  duty. 

Of  course  it  all  moves  in  a  plane  "far  above  out  of  sight" 
of  most  good  people.  Lord  Salisbury  said  in  the  House  that 
"  Military  Honours  "  and  "  Imperial  Necessity"  were  points  which 
we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  to  think  that  anything  (I  suppose  he 
meant  at  present)  could  touch. 

And  also  it  seems  to  me  from  what  I  hear  (e.g.  Llewellyn 
Davies^  said  it  with  a  vehemence  which  I  was  rather  frightened  at) 
— that  to  speak  of  disarmament  now  is  not  to  help  on  the  cause. 

^  Which  occurred  on  April  6th. 

*  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Marylebone,  1856 — 1888,  now  Vicar  of  Kirkby 
Lonsdale. 


THE   ARMY   SYSTEM 


259 


It  is  as  if  the  whole  chorus  replied  that  "  as  they  know  that  is 
hopeless  probably  the  other  things  you  say  are  hopeless,  and  the 
whole  may  be  postponed  " — which  it  is  quite  like  the  chorus  to 
say. 

I  had  a  long  talk  to  a  German  Prince  the  other  day  who 
seemed  to  have  as  much  horror  of  war  as  one  could  wish,  but 
was  an  active  officer  and  held  the  army  "  to  be  the  Strength  of 
Germany"  (not  as  a  "security"  only  but)  for  reasons  which  1 
have  never  realised — its  enormous  and  constant  effect  on  the 
physique  of  the  men  of  the  nation.  They  had  become  very 
small  and  weak,  he  said,  and  the  muscle  and  sinew  of  the  whole 
people  was  gone,  partly  old  wars,  partly  ill-drained  towns  and 
close  occupations  and  poor  food  and  poor  means.  The  case 
had  been  desperate  almost  when  the  great  system  of  "  Turnen  ' " 
exercises  in  preparation  for  the  army,  was  made  to  form  part  of 
all  their  educational  courses,  and  caused  the  great  perfection  in 
the  army.  This  physical  restoration  of  the  people  he  spoke  of 
with  much  enthusiasm,  and  of  all  the  healthy  habits  induced  by 
drill  ufiiversal^  and  it  is  quite  clear  that  there  was  an  entirely 
separate  ground  (in  a  good  young  fellow's  mind)  for  keeping  up 
the  armament.  The  Germans  have  no  love  of  games  and  will 
take  no  exercise  except  with  a  serious  end  in  view. 

So  that  perhaps  in  p.  6  and  p.  8  it  will  be  possible  to  insert 
something  which  would  imply  disarmament  as  an  ultimate  final 
result — rather  than  "mediation,  arbitration  and  disarmament,"  as 
if  all  were  above  the  horizon — so  as  not  to  prejudice   i  and  2 

by  3- 

I  talked  to  the  Lord  Chancellor  about  Arbitration  Treaty. 
He  seemed  to  fear  that  the  difficulty  would  arise  about  disputing 
the  award — the  fairness  post  factum — and  the  hideous  confusion 
if  powers  that  had  agreed  to  arbitration  took  exceptions  when  the 
arbitrators  had  spoken.  There  would  be  no  Court  of  Appeal  in 
the  case  of  decisions  so  vast,  e.g.  I  suppose  some  think  that  a 
nation  might  have  not  dishonourably  objected  to  the  Alabama 
decision. 

It  may  be  that  some  word  will  occur  to  you  to  turn  this 
popular  objection. 

I  do  not  think  I  have  anything  of  importance  to  say.  V.  p.  2  ; 
"Social  and  Human  duties"  are  meant  to  be  in  sharp  contrast 

^  I.e.  Gymnastic. 

17 2 


26o  DECENTRALISATION    OF   BISHOPS         aet.  59 

(are  they  not?)  with  individual  duties.  But  the  latter  may  be 
social  and  are  human  ;  I  only  mean,  can  you  a  little  more  express 
for  stupid  people  the  breadth  of  these  social  and  human  duties  ? 

The  Diary  continues  : — 

June  19.  To  Eton  to  consult  Arthur,  Lyttelton\  Brinton^, 
Lowry^  and  Hughie^  himself,  with  his  dear  mother — we  are  all 
against  it.  We  all  feel  that  being  against  it  will  throw  him  off  from 
the  only  intellectual  keenness  and  earnest  purpose  as  to  his  future 
which  he  has  yet  shown — he  certainly  takes  a  manly  tone  and 
listens  to  none  of  us  in  the  way  of  defection. 

On  June  20th  he  adds  : — 

A  new  power  of  manliness  seems  to  have  come  over  him.  I 
trust  in  answer  to  the  many  prayers  "  that  he  may  know  himself 
to  be  God's  servant  and  God's  child,  and  live  as  to  the  Lord  and 
not  as  to  men." 

"  Our  little  sheltered  boy  !  "  his  mother  says — and  breaks  my 
heart.  I  always  reckoned  on  this  one  to  be  my  great  friend  as 
I  grew  old. 

On  June  22nd  he  notes  : — 

The  Bishops  of  England  will  soon  be  a  name  without  a  mean- 
ing. They  are  Bishops  of  Dioceses  and  make  an  immense  fuss 
about  their  business  and  their  letters  so  that  people  groan  over 
their  lamentations  about  their  work — they  are  good  diocesan 
bishops — but  Bishops  of  England,  no.  They  take  no  share  in 
public  functions  or  public  business  even  when  it  most  concerns 
the  Church.  Take  these  meetings  this  year — S.P.G.  meeting — 
S.P.G.  service.  Additional  Curates  Society,  Sons  of  Clergy  (dinner 
in  City  and  dinner  at  Lambeth) — Service  at  St  Paul's.  The  only 
Bishops  who  have  appeared  at  any  of  these  are  Carlisle  twice, 
Wakefield  twice,  St  Asaph  twice,  Hereford  once,  Southwell  once, 
and  in  the  House  of  Lords  scarcely  ever  one  of  them  all  except 
Carlisle. 

A  very  perceptible  change  in  the  manners  of  England  is  in 
process — a  slow  disappearing  of  deference  and  reverence  and  of 

1  The  Hon.  and  Rev.  Edward  Lyttelton,  now  Headmaster  of  Haileybury. 

-'  Assistant-masters  at  Eton  College. 

■^  His  son  Hugh,  then  at  Eton,  wished  to  go  in  for  the  Civil  Service  of 
India.  This  entailed  his  leaving  Eton  and  going  to  London  to  be  specially 
coached. 


i889  ARMENIAN   OUTRAGES  261 

any  belief  in  the  propriety  of  expressing  it,  whether  felt  or  unfelt. 
I  do  not  think  the  change  at  all  connected  with  real  independence 
of  the  spirit.  People  ask  favours  more  servilely ;  to  ask  you  to 
be  a  reference  for  them  or  to  speak  for  them,  or  for  their  friends 
whom  you  never  saw  or  heard  of  before,  is  quite  common. 

On  the  28th  he  says  : — 

Spoke  in  House  of  Lords  for  the  Armenians — showing  we  had 
every  reason  to  believe  the  reports  of  the  outrages,  or  that  if  the 
Government  could  show  reason  to  the  contrary,  let  them  give  us 
the  Consular  Reports  from  that  part  of  the  world,  which  since 
188 1  have  remained  unprinted.  I  followed  Lord  Carnarvon.  I 
showed  also  how  in  instances,  familiar  to  us,  a  strong  word  from 
our  Government  had  sufificed  to  make  the  Turks  check  the  Kurds. 

Lord  Salisbury  gave  us  very  solemn  sympathy,  but  excused 
the  Turk  as  more  weak  than  wilful  in  his  government,  and  thought 
that  we  were  unwise,  lest  our  utterances  in  House  of  Lords  should 
exasperate  the  feeling  between  Kurds  and  Armenian  peasants  ! 

At  the  Queen's  Concert  two  members  of  the  Cabinet  half  im- 
plied that  they  thought  us  right,  and  meant  to  do  what  they  could. 
Some  people  palliate  it  by  saying  that  Armenia  is  like  our  own 
Ireland !  If  in  Ireland  half  the  population  were  supplied  with 
arms,  and  half  forbidden  the  use  of  them — and  the  former  half 
were  allowed  to  carry  off  women  and  men  and  cattle — with  no 
redress  attainable,  even  for  an  hour  ;  if  hordes  of  savage  disposi- 
tions and  greed  were  continually  being  injected  among  them  and 
settled  in  villages  to  eat  them  up,  it  would  be  somewhat  like 
Armenia. 

On  the  30th  June  he  says : — 

Went  to  St  A — 's.  The  Service  was  shortened  to  please  the 
supposed  wishes  of  the  Volunteers,  who  came  to  church.  The 
Psalms  of  B —  substituted  for  those  of  the  C.P.B. ;  Royal  Family, 
Clergy  and  Parliament  not  prayed  for — no  Litany,  no  Ante- 
Communion.  Surely  these  are  more  of  offences  of  a  legal  nature 
than  any  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  !  In  the  evening  preached 
at  Westminster  Abbey.  The  nave  crowded  and  people  standing 
all  along  west  end.  I  suppose  they  expected  that  I  should 
stimulate  church  hatred,  poor  people,  by  something  or  other. 
But  I  tried  a  different  strain — desiring  that  people  should  make 
people  Christian.      The   duties   of  mutual    missioning   are   more 


2  62  THE    SHAH  aet.  59 

neglected  than  ever  they  were ;  yet  by  the  New  Testament  what 
Christian  can  ever  Hve  as  we  do  inducing  no  Christianity  whatever 
among  the  godless — unless  these  godless  are  also  poor  ? 

On  July  1st  there  is  this  entry : — 

Vanitas  vanitatum ;  of  all  vain  things  the  vainest  is  to  labour 
incessantly  for  God  without  that  spirit  which  alone  is  acceptable 
to  God  and  effective  for  God. 

A  single  human  life  is  a  caravan  starting  across  the  desert 
— a  caravan  of  living  hopes,  desires,  passions,  principles — how 
many  of  them  are  bleaching  skeletons  along  the  road  before  the 
pilgrimage  is  over  ! 

On  July  2nd  he  wrote  : — 

Convocation — left  it  to  drive  to  Croydon  for  dear  Braithwaite's^ 
funeral.  There  were  thousands  of  people — most  in  black — behav- 
ing most  quietly — every  house  in  Croydon  closed — he  was  every 
one's  friend.  The  whole  family  were  there.  The  manly  boys 
crying  bitterly  and  hiding  it.  What  work  God  does  and  what  work 
He  makes  for  us  !  In  the  evening  Mansion  House — many  Bishops 
and  Archbishop  of  Cyprus  and  leading  Nonconformists,  for  whom 
spoke  Dr  Allon — and  wisely  observed  that  the  Archbishop  of 
Cyprus  and  I  had  no  difficulty  in  speaking  for  our  Church  but 
that  he  found  it  difficult  indeed  to  speak  for  all  Nonconformists 
who  so  widely  differed  from  each  other.  These  mixtures  are  not 
amiss  but  they  won't  stand  stirring  about. 

On  July  3rd  he  notes  : — 

Convocation.  But  after  one  hour  had  to  leave  it,  making 
Bishop  of  London  Commissary  to  carry  on  the  Upper  House — 
no  document  needed  for  this.  Lunched  at  Guildhall  to  meet  the 
Shah,  and  our  Royal  Family. 

The  Shah  has  a  Barbarian  flatness,  nearness  and  wrinkledness 
of  eyes^I  suppose  he  has  a  conception  of  material  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  civilisation  and  wishes  for  civilisation  accord- 
ingly. I  think  our  English  civilisers  had  formerly  the  idea  that 
one  form,  tone  and  air  of  society  was  better  in  itself  than  another 
and  more  after  the  mind  of  God.  The  Shah  told  me  that  he 
himself  was  the  most  tolerant  of  all  monarchs  ;  that  all  religions  were 
safe  in  his  protection.     I  thanked  him  for  the  tolerance  extended 

^  Rev.  John  Masterman  Braithwaite,  Vicar  of  Croydon  from  1882. 


i889  THE   TURKISH   AMBASSADOR  263 

to  our  Missionaries  in  their  efforts  for  the  better  education  of 
Christian  children  and  Clergy.  He  said  he  knew  all  about  them 
and  knew  that  they  did  not  proselytize.  If  a  Mahomedan 
turned  Christian  I  do  not  know  how  far  tolerance  would  go. 
The  ceremony  was  truly  a  brilliant  one.  The  royal  carriages  have 
emerged  again  in  utmost  splendour.  Lord  Salisbury  spoke  well 
and  touched  the  apices  of  advantages,  and  the  Shah  spoke  of  "  the 
mutual  benefit  to  both  nations  "  very  emphatically.  The  visit  is, 
I  suppose,  a  purely  political  and  Anti-Russian  one.  But  the 
whole  nation  seems  of  one  mind,  though  there  was  trifling  dissent 
when  Lord  S.  said  so.  We  are  ceasing  to  look  westward  and 
are  turning  eastward  again. 

When  I  was  presented  yesterday  to  the  Shah  an  amusing 
incident  occurred — the  Prince  of  Wales  had  said  to  him,  "  I  must 
present  Baron  Ferdinand  de  Rothschild  to  you  " — (I  did  not  know 
this  till  the  Prince  told  me  after).  Some  one  went  to  fetch  Roths- 
child. That  moment  the  Prince  said  to  me,  "  If  you  have  not  been 
presented,  let  me  present  you."  So  the  Shah  took  my  hand,  and 
holding  it,  kept  saying  to  me  with  a  phlegmatic  surprise,  "  Roths- 
child !  Rothschild  !  Rothschild  ! "  looking  very  enquiringly  at  me. 
The  Prince  did  not  catch  it  at  first.  But  then,  full  of  amusement, 
repeated  the  introduction,  and  then  the  Shah  murmured  more 
contentedly,   "Ah!  Archeveque  !  Archeveque  !  Cantorbe'ry." 

My  father  added  to  this  in  telling  the  story  to  me : — 

He  did  not  take  nearly  so  much  interest  when  he  found  I 
was  only  a  sort  of  muezzin. 

On  July  9th  he  says  : — 

The  Turkish  Ambassador  ^  called  on  me  to  lament  the  way  in 
which  I  had  spoken  of  Turkish  rule  on  Friday.  He  came,  he 
said,  wholly  unofficially.  He  spoke  of  the  financial  difficulties  of 
Turkey  and  of  the  impressibility  of  so  wild  a  nation  as  the  Kurds, 
but  declared  that  his  Government  was  sincerely  desirous  of  pro- 
tecting its  Christian  subjects,  that  the  alleged  atrocities  were  as 
a  rule  false,  that  they  were  in  any  case  without  Turkish  connivance, 
and  that  the  main  reports  were  the  creation  of  a  conspiracy  for 
bringing  the  Russians  to  Constantinople  and  making  them  by 
means  of  the  Black  Sea,  its  coal  and  its  forests,  the  most  powerful 

1  Rnstem  Pasha.     See  p.  261  for  the  account  of  the  Archbisliop's  speech. 


264  ARMENIA  AET.  59 

naval  nation  in  the  Mediterranean.  He  was  rather  touching  when 
he  spoke  of  the  old  sympathy  of  England  for  his  people,  and  how 
it  seemed  to  be  disappearing  under  the  influence  of  calumny. 

I  pointed  out  that  I  had  myself  laid  no  stress  on  individual 
accounts  of  atrocities,  but  that  there  was  a  consensus  which  I 
could  not  disbelieve  as  to  the  general  oppression  of  the  Christians 
by  the  Kurds,  which  was  suffered  to  proceed  unchecked  by  the 
Turks,  unless  a  sharp  remonstrance  produced  such  a  "  riding  "  as 
the  Vali  of  Van  had  held.  I  told  him  that  if  once  the  English 
people  heard  that  such  steps  were  taken  to  suppress  Kurdish 
brigandage  as  he  himself  (Rustem  Pasha)  had  taken,  in  the 
Lebanon  20  or  30  years  ago,  when  he  effectually  for  the  time 
suppressed  it,  there  was  no  fear  but  that  the  sympathy  of  England 
would  be  with  his  people  and  Government.  The  English  were 
predisposed  to  an  interest  in  Turkey,  and  good  even-handed 
justice,  which  would  hang  an  Armenian  too  if  he  deserved  it, 
would  conciliate  our  people  more  than  anything — but  that  to  see 
Christians  always  put  in  the  wrong,  always  disbelieved,  always 
punished  for  resisting,  was  not  likely  to  improve  the  popular 
regard  for  Turkey.  A  little  vigour  to  back  the  "instructions" 
would  make  all  other  representations  welcome.  He  said  the 
instructions  were  constant  and  sincere — but  that  he  would  write 
to  Constantinople  and  urge  these  considerations.  His  Excellency 
is  very  kindly  and  very  acute  and  speaks  English  of  a  good  style 
thoroughly  well.  He  .is  not  a  Mussulman.  I  gave  him  Seager's 
opinion  of  the  Turks  themselves  as  distinguished  from  their  rulers. 

Dined  with  the  Aberdeens. 

To  the  Bishop  of  DiirJiain. 

Lambeth  Palace. 
13//;  July,  1889. 
My  dearest  Brother, 

One  line  to-night  to  express  the  solemn  almost 
trembling  joy  with  which  I  learn  from  letter  after  letter  that  your 
strength  is  your  own  again. 

What  a  gift  of  God  !  Not  however  to  be  looked  for  a  third 
time.  Among  your  prayers  you  must  daily  pray  for  grace  to  take 
care  of  your  health. 

You  know  it  was  a  grace  you  lacked. 

But  what  a  joy  to  you  to  see  your  church  added  to  all  your 
other  labours  !     The  account  of  your  people's  love  of  you  is  most 


i889  THE   WISDOM   OF   THE   WORLD  265 

refreshing ;  and  a  compensation  for  much  that  here  one  has  day 
by  day  to  take  silently — yes,  much  more  than  a  compensation. 
Ever  your  affectionate, 

With  oft  prayers  for  you, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

To  Professor   Westcott. 

{On  "  The   Church's  Duty  to  promote  Interjiational  Peace?''') 

Lambeth  Palace. 

July  i2,th,  1889. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

I  was  perplexed  at  the  time,  and  I  do  not  feel  less 
perplexed  now,  and  since  the  end  of  our  Conference  Session'. 
It  was  a  relief  at  which  I  caught,  when  you  said  you  thought  the 
upshot  of  the  discussion  was  good.  And  I  am  sure  I  do  not 
know.  Surely  the  aim  which  the  Church  in  all  ages  has  carried, 
in  her  bosom  at  least,  is  that  which  you  expressed.  What  else 
can  it  be?  And  you  put  the  reasonings  which  support  it,  and 
the  blessings  which  enshrine  it  spiritually,  in  the  newest  form ; 
and  the  most  elevating  thoughts  flowed  out,  as  you  went  on, 
from  people's  minds  which  seemed  to  rush  to  meet  yours.  Yet 
good  men  and  good  priests  became  more  fervent  for  the  counter- 
view.  And  the  most  high-minded  and  good  man  who  "  followed  " 
you,  uttered,  all  through,  the  cro</)ta  koct/xou"  in  its  most  common- 
sense  form,  and  in  its  most  pulse-stirring  "  patriotic  "  spirit.  And 
this  it  was  which  finally  seemed  to  be  the  dominant  chord.  I 
should  not  have  been  surprised  at  all  if  the  tone  had  been  "  your 
doctrine  is  true  and  what  we  must  pray,  teach,  and  work  for, 
though  as  to  its  operativeness,  that  is  far  off  and  there  is  a 
'  present  necessity '  which  will  prevent  even  us  from  doing  more 
in  act  of  parliament  or  in  diplomacy  or  debate."  That  would 
have  troubled  me  somewhat.  But  the  air  seemed  to  me  to  be 
full  of  the  spirit  of  Greeks  or  Romans  who  "had  not  so  much 
as  heard."  It  seemed  to  mean  that  there  was  no  use  in  thinking 
or  speaking  in  the  vein,  which  I  thought  was  the  only  Christian 
one  for  people  engaged  at  any  rate  in  philosophizing. 

1  Professor  Westcott  delivered  an  address  at  the  Canterbury  Diocesan 
Conference  in  1889,  afterwards  published  in  Christian  Aspects  of  Life  (Mac- 
millan,  1897)  under  the  title  of  "The  Christian  Faith  and  War,"  p.  295. 

^  Wisdom  of  the  world,     i  Cor.  i.  20. 


266  THE   VISITATION   CHARGE  aet.  59 

I  shall  be  thankful  if  you  really  took  another  view  of  the 
situation.  I  shall  if  so  accept  your  impression  instead  of  my  own. 
For  these  are  our  /<r/pw/<€s ',  and  I  trust  I  have  misunderstood 
utterly  the  sense  of  the  meeting. 

It  was  most  good  of  you  to  come.  If  you  thought  there  was 
more  agreement  with  you  than  I  did  I  am  thankful  to  you.  If 
I  was  right  in  my  pulse-reading  I  am  much  more  thankful,  for  it 
was  the  more  needful  to  be  said ;  and  they  must  hear  more  of  it. 
The  resumption  of  the  Trial  draws  near.  And  I  cannot  in 
myself  feel  so  hopeful.  The  outcome  of  this  new  Alliance  perturbs 
me.  It  seems  to  say,  "We  don't  want  peace — but  our  own  way." 
They  have  now  put  in  a  demurrer. 

My  Charge  grows  aweful.  And  the  thought  of  the  Riffel 
being  troubled  with  it !     But  the  Matterhorn  won't  mind. 

I  find  I  shall  only  have  five  sections  of  Charge  to  deliver — 
one  at  Cathedral,  and  four  at  Parochial  Centres. 
We  talked  of  these  subjects  : 
Purity, 
Temperance, 
Property, 
Peace, 

Spread  of  faith  (Missionary  Nation), 
The  Spiritual  Organ  of  the  Nation — Responsibility  for 

India.     (Establishment.) 
Christianised  Commerce. 
Any  hints  as  to  my  choice  of  5,  which  may  form  some  group,  and 
any  as  to  the  History  or  Theory  which  I  should  study,  will  be 
gratefully  accepted. 

I  advance  daily  into  Ignorance  deeper  and  darker — and  shall 
henceforth,  through  "  work,"  continue  that  advance. 

I  have  just  seen  the  proof  of  your  Peace  Memorandum  and 
like  it  very  much. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

How  much  comfort  there  is  in  the  thought  of  the  prayers 
which  are  more  and  more  rising  for  the  Church — and  (we  ought 
to  believe)  of  more  and  more  blessing  descending  super  scalam. 

Your  letter  from  Auckland  was  too  delightful,  I  thank  you 
for  writing  it. 

^  Heralds,  preachers. 


i889  HIS   SIXTIETH   BIRTHDAY  267 

On  July  14th  he  writes  a  long  autobiographical  note  : — 

My  sixtieth  birthday.  Such  health  and  bodily  strength  and 
family  peace  and  cheerful  surroundings  and  such  active  employ- 
ment have  been  always  given  me  that  I  feel  not  so  old  as  I  did 
at  forty,  can  work  longer  hours,  mix  in  many  more  businesses, 
take  harder  exercise  (though  not  walk  so  fast),  and  eat  less  and 
drink  less  and  sleep  rather  less.  Westcott  often  speaks  to  me  of 
this  strength  as  a  special  gift  for  my  duties,  and  I  habitually  feel 
that  in  a  moment  it  may  be  withdrawn  like  an  arm  from  under 
a  child.     When  the  right  moment  comes  it  will  be. 

But  meantime  what  self-reproach  gathers  for  so  much  strenuous 
idleness — for  doing  little  things  for  ever  with  energy  ratlier  than 
great  ones ;  for  shrinking  from  public  business  on  the  self-excuse 
of  much  serving ;  for  not  cultivating  unselfishly  the  affections  of 
the  extraordinarily  affectionate  and  unselfish  friends  with  whom 
God  has  surrounded  me  from  the  cradle ;  for  never  finishing  any- 
thing ;  for  not  knowing  personally  more  of  the  poor ;  for  not 
preaching  God's  word  more  freely  and  laboriously;  for  not  re- 
straining the  heat  of  temper  and  speech  which  burn  so  and  hurt  so 
many  and  such  good  people,  and  which  have  never  effected  anything 
which  lovingness  would  not  have  done  better  ;  for  not  feeling 
others'  troubles  however  great  with  anything  like  the  movement 
with  which  I  feel  my  own  smallest;  this  is  not  a  tenth  of  the 
indictment  by  which  I  shall  be  judged, — how  soon !— nor  a 
shadow  of  the  inexcusableness  of  it  all  on  account  of  the  abun- 
dance of  the  Grace  which  I  have  resisted— I  know  it  has  been 
copious.  For  the  worst  of  it  all  is  that  I  had  "  naturally  "  a  love 
of  the  revelation  of  God  and  of  the  devotions  which  answer  to  it, 
and  if  I  had  but  curbed  all  that  wanted  curbing  as  I  have  starved 
those  two  divine  gifts  by  prayerlessness  and  coldness  and  hurry, 
I  am  sure  I  might  have  been,  if  I  had  only  given  the  Holy  Spirit 
room,  and  no  more,  infinitely — yes  infinitely — infinitely  further 
from  the  self  which  enchains  me,  and  rides  me  sometimes  like 
an  old  man  of  the  sea,  but  more  often  with  a  softness  and  flexi- 
bility like  a  perfect  horseman's.  Self  rides  when  I  fancy  I  am  all 
absorbed  in  work  and  service.  Deus,  Tu  nosti.  Quid  facies, 
Deus? 

Now,  if  I  think — what  would  I  do  quite  differently  if  it  came 
again,  the  plainest  point  is,  that  I  would  speak  to  my  boys  much 
more  religiously — and  straight  to  the  point  of  Love  of  God,  in  edu- 


268  AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL  aet.  6o 

eating  a  great  sehool.  The  chapel  and  the  sermons  not  individual 
enough,  though,  so  far  as  they  went,  right  and  not  to  be  changed. 

What  is  my  chief  sorrow?  Certainly,  though  my  father's 
death,  and  my  mother's  and  sister's  in  one  day,  were,  the  first 
a  stroke  which  threw  life  into  another  plane,  and  the  other  heart- 
breaking, still  I  can  see  the  love  and  the  effect — the  over- 
poweringness  of  the  call. 

But  Martin's  death  remains  an  inexplicable  grief — -every  day 
— to  see  into  that  will  be  worth  dying. 

What  are  the  chief  blessings  within  ?  I  think  that  one  is  that 
God  gave  me  a  certain  simplicity  of  nature — which  carried  me 
without  my  knowing  it  through  difficulties  which  grew  clear  only 
when  they  were  over,  and  had  become  almost  an  amusement  to 
contemplate.  And  if  subtleties  have  attracted  me  I  generally 
blundered  them  first  thing,  and  they  were  gone.  And  the  other 
is  that  I  very  early  in  life  determined  that  I  would  never  seek  any 
position,  never  collect  testimonials,  never  make  any  application  for 
any  place.  At  school  they  used  to  say  I  was  ambitious  and  I 
knew  that  if  it  were  so  I  should  be  always  miserable,  and  I  made 
and  kept  the  resolution  as  soon  as  I  took  my  degree.  The  sorest 
temptation  was  when  I  was  told  from  Duke  of  Marlborough  that 
if  I  would  be  a  candidate  for  Headmastership  of  Rugby  I  should 
be  elected.  I  also  determined  to  refuse  nothing  which  seemed 
like  a  call,  but  I  broke  this  in  refusing  Dorking,  for  I  did  not  see 
how  I  could  bring  up  the  children — and  the  temptation  to  repent 
was  when  I  had  reduced  my  income  by  half  by  taking  the  Chan- 
cellorship of  Lincoln.  I  was  "sometimes  afraid,  yet  put  I  my 
trust  in  Thee." 

These  two  gifts  of  God  are  the  two  which  I  think  have  given 
me  all  my  life  a  peacefulness  which  has  made  me  strong  for 
working  hard,  an  assurance  that  my  life  was  made  for  me  and 
not  by  me — a  peacefulness,  not  alas  !  in  relation  to  other  people 
or  to  daily  work — for  in  this  I  have  been  fervefis  caloribiis  im- 
patientiae  to  others'  troubles — but  in  the  inner  sense  that  God  con- 
cerned Himself  with  my  sparrow-like  affairs  better  than  I  could. 

I  can't  tell  whether  my  children  will  see  this — probably  they 
may — or  I  may  find  it  better  to  destroy  all  in  the  next  ten 
years — but  if  they  do  they  will  understand  that  I  need  not  here 
write  my  sense  of  what  are  the  greatest  things  of  all — the  intense 
sense,  would  it  were  much  more  intense,  of  the  awfulness  of  sin 
and   sinfulness   in  the  inner  spirit.     There  is   an    inner,    higher, 


i889  THE   INNERMOST  SPIRIT  269 

deeper  spirit  in  each  man  which  rules  the  soul,  the  mind,  brain 
and  all — as  we  know  them.  It  is  this  spirit  which  is  the  man — 
all  beneath  it  is  the  mere  rendering  of  that  spirit  in  other  media — 
but  these  are  subject  to  endless  cross  phenomena  which  may  or 
may  not  count  for  much.  But  the  spirit  is  before  God,  unaltered 
by  old  age,  or  loss  of  reason,  and  not  faithfully  exhibited  for  either 
good  or  bad  by  its  counterparts  in  the  reasonable  or  material 
world.  In  that  inner  spirit  I  am  conscious  of  an  unsubdued, 
unbridled  real  sinfulness  and  sin  whose  extirpation  I  cannot  con- 
ceive of.  I  truly  believe  that  it  is  redeemable  by  the  Blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  its  sinfulness  capable  of  abolition  as  if  it  had 
never  been  through  some  high  contact  with  God  the  Lord  through 
God  the  Spirit.  I  cannot  in  the  remotest  degree  realise  how  the 
wickedness  of  which  I  am  conscious  in  that  spirit  can  possibly  be 
separated  from  it,  how  the  indurated  indifference  to  the  God  it 
knows  can  possibly  be  animated,  how  the  desperate  things  in  the 
conception  of  which  it  leaps  out  can  cease  from  it  when  so  much 
chastisement,  so  much  spirit  of  truth  fail  to  alter  it  much.  I  can 
only  believe  that  the  Blood  of  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin,  and 
that  He  will  not  cast  out  those  whom  He  draws.  But  I  do 
believe,  and  I  wait  for  the  ages  of  its  accomplishment. 

And  there  is  a  second  thing  which  I  rank  for  my  spirit  as 
among  the  greatest  things  of  all — the  duties  of  this  Office  to  the 
Church  of  God.  How  they  are  being  done  is  matter  of  fearful 
doubt  and  of  doubting  fear  every  day.  It  is  utterly  impossible 
for  me  to  judge  myself — and  when  I  commit  myself  to  Him 
that  judges  righteously  I  do  not  mean  that  I  think  He  ought  to 
approve  or  acquit  me.  But  if  He  does  it  is  only  for  His  own 
sake — His  own  Love's  sake  in  Christ  Jesus.  Hour  after  hour 
brings  its  hurried  driving  engagement — its  ttoXXo.  avTiKeL/jiera  ' — a 
strange  thing  to  come  out  in  this  solar  system ;  such  petty  things 
in  such  grand  frame — and  they  have  to  be  fought  through  and 
scudded  through  somehow.  I  seem  to  have  no  choice  of  what 
I  will  do — my  will  has  only  to  conform  itself  to  facts — I  am  like 
the  buried  ones 

Rolled  round  in  earth's  diurnal  course 
With  rocks  and  stones  and  trees. 

One's  life  (if  one  is  bound  to  recognise  that  one  is  alive)  is  merely 

^  Many  oppositions,      i  Cor.  xvi    9. 


2  70  DAILY  WORK  aet.  6o 

touching,  tapping,  spinning  onward,  the  flying  bodies  of  works 
which  whirl  past  within  reach. 

Well — in  all — through  all^above  all,  sits  throned  the  Author 
of  all.  We  can  only  believe  that  they  are  not  rushing  into  chaos 
again,  if  we  believe  on  the  Name  of  the  Only  Begotten  Son  of 
God.     In  Him  alone  is  order. 

Through  Him  one  has  an  intelligible  touch  with  God's  chiefest 
part  of  His  long  rolling  work  so  far,  we  live  only  by  that  which 
TTavra  vovv  vTrepe^^ei  ^. 

2vy;(wpT/o-ov  t-^v  ac^ecrtv  tmv  dfxapTLwv^,  and  make  me  for  Christ's 
sake  to  do  the  works  which  Thou  hast  prepared  for  me  to  walk 
in ;  and  to  build  on  Thee,  the  Foundation,  a  course  of  work — 
a  fragment  of  a  course — which  may  not  be  burnt  up — for  Thy 
mercy  and  Thy  Love's  sake. 

On  the  1 8th  he  says  : — 

Long  sitting  Ecclesiastical  Commission.  Long  afternoon  sitting 
on  a  Committee  of  Archdeacons,  Chancellor  and  Rural  Deans  as 
to  revising  fees  payable  to  Diocesan  Surveyors.  House  of  Lords, 
Hares — Mr  and  Mrs  Sterne — Lady  Dartmouth.  One  of  those 
days  when  it  is  so  really  difficult  to  comprehend  how  "  Moral 
Government  of  the  World  "  is  being  carried  on  through  Committees. 
It  is  tiring  work  and  no  one  seems  the  better  or  the  worse.  Each 
however  is  a  cog  of  a  very  big  wheel.     "  Ilepav  rov  'lopSdvovV 

On  July  22nd  he  writes  : — 

Herkomer  i|  hour;  he  says  he  does  not  know  whether  it  is 
more  like  than  his  former  portrait,  and  that  it  is  not  flattering,  but 
that  it  is  strong — haven't  seen  it.  But  people  never  like  their 
own  portraits  for  any  such  reason.  Considered  once  again  my 
All  Souls  Judgment  with  Lee — and  adhere  to  it^ 

Assyrian  Meeting  at  Argyll  Lodge :  spoke.  Duke  of  Argyll 
spoke  on  political  aspect  of  Mission.  He  declared  that  though 
he  could  see  good  in  most  things  that  are,  he  never  could  see 
anything  but  evil  in  Mohammedanism. 

^  "Passeth  all  understanding,"  Phil.  iv.  7. 

-  Grant  me  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 

'  "  Beyond  Jordan  " — this  is  one  of  those  Greek  mottoes  with  which  he 
often  ended  an  entry  in  a  Diary.  The  Bishop  of  Winchester  tells  me  that 
he  constantly  used  the  phrase  in  the  sense  of  "  Behind  the  veil." 

*  He  was  Visitor  of  All  Souls'  College,  Oxford. 


i889  PRINCESS    LOUISE   OF   WALES  271 

House  of  Lords.  Cruelty  to  children'  ;  said  a  few  words 
against  allowing  children  under  10  to  perform  in  theatres,  and 
reserved  my  arguments  until  I  hear  Lord  Dunraven's  amendment. 

Dinner— Bishop  Hereford,  Bishop  French,  A.  G.  Hardy, 
Victoria  Grosvenor.     "  Ik  t/^s  6criji,rj<i  tov  fxvpov^." 

He  adds  : — 

Hughie  has  got  the  first  Prize  Poem  at  Eton — subject  "  Father 
Damien."  Warre  a  very  nice  letter  about  the  tone  and  thought- 
fulness  of  the  boy's  poem.  Angelus  qui  servavit  me  a  cunctis 
malis  benedicat  puero  meo. 

On  July  27th  the  Princess  Louise  of  Wales  was  married 
to  the  Duke  of  Fife.     The  Archbishop  writes  :  — 

The  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Teck,  as  they  came  up  the  Church, 
made  a  low  reverence,  as  I  supposed  to  the  Altar ;  afterwards  she 
reproached  me  for  not  acknowledging  it — "  It  was  to  you  ;  my 
dear  father  always  taught  us,  'Always  show  the  greatest  respect 
to  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  my  dears.' " — However,  this 
is  not  I  think  very  common  doctrine  now.  The  harder  and 
harder  the  "dignitaries"  work  the  less  tokens  of  respect  are  shown 
to  them — it  seems  to  me  to  decrease  year  by  year,  I  believe 
the  ritualistic  advances  are  held  by  people  in  general  to  affect  the 
whole  body  of  the  clergy  with  a  self-importance  which  is  resented, 
at  the  very  time  that  they  are  more  and  more  servants  of  all.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  main  temper  of  the  English  is  much 
changed  since  they  trampled  on  the  man  who  moved  the  Holy 
Tables  to  the  East  and  railed  them  in  and  put  two  cushions  and 
a  Bible  on  them.  The  change  may  in  the  long  run  be  accepted, 
but  the  changers  are  put  out  of  the  way  first. 

At  Marlborough  House  in  the  garden  when  the  Bride  and 
Bridegroom  were  about  to  be  off  with  their  four  magnificent 
steeds,  in  showers  of  rice,  an  old  Duchess  laid  hold  of  my  arm 
and  said,  "  I  shall  hold  by  the  Church — until  you  are  disestablished 
—which  you  will  very  soon  be." 

Well,  my  dears,  so  much  of  gossip  for  you  to-day  about  the 
present  tokens— in  this  small  way  at  least.  When  you  read  this 
you'll  know  more  history  than  I  do. 

^  A  Bill  for  the  prevention  of  which  became  law  in  the  then  session. 
^  "With  the  odour  of  the  ointment,"  John  xii.   3. 


272  MODERN   MONASTICISM  aet.  6o 

On  August  1st  he  says  : — 

Rode  to  Whitelands  to  visit  it — all  dismantled — and  round 
Battersea.  Thousands  and  thousands  of  working-men  lining  the 
embankment  and  bridges  to  see  the  race  for  Doggett's  coat  and 
badge,  and  of  them  all,  is  one  man  per  cent,  in  the  least  affected 
by  the  existence  of  the  Church  of  England  in  his  spiritual  being, 
in  his  morals,  in  his  affections  ?  Do  they  feel  her  touch  on  them 
in  love  ? 

What  are  we  to  do  ?     Z writes  about  a  monastic  Order 

in  earnest^ — But  his  are  not  the  hands. 

On  August  2nd  he  adds  : — 

A  sad  day  of  fret  and  impatience — have  written  Z my 

view  of  the  sham  of  modern  attempts  at  Monasticism.  They 
begin  with  the  enmity  to  the  secular  clergy,  despising  instantly 
their  homes  and  habits — they  have  Ambition  in  place  of  other 
vices,  everyone  thinks  he  has  the  gifts  not  of  a  Monk  but  of  an 
Abbot  or  Founder.  Thpir  dress  makes  the  artisan  mad — their 
expression  of  face  has  the  same  effect  on  any  Stoic.  Their  idea 
of  authority  is  to  appoint  an  officer  of  their  own  to  order  them  to 
do  all  they  wish  to  do,  who  is  then  their  oracle.     To  overcome 

all  this  needs  a  more  stable  man  than  Z ,  and  a  wit  quite 

original. 

That  odd  man  X— —  gave  me  an  authenticated  copy  of  one  of 
the  Holy  Nails,  sealed  and  authenticated  as  being  "similHmus," 
and  having  been  "admotus"'  to  the  Veritable  Nail  at  Jerusalem. 
He  made  much  of  an  oration.  He  perhaps  is  no  sign  of  the 
times — but  perhaps  the  thing  might  be  a  reminder  to  patience — 
which  I  have  so  little  of. 

On  August  6th  he  visited  the  Church  Army  Head- 
quarters. With  all  the  main  principles  of  this  movement 
he  was  in  thorough  agreement  ;  "If  you  want  to  do  the 
Church's  work  among  the  working-classes,"  he  had  said, 
"  you  must  get  your  working  men  and  women  to  go  to 
them  and  evangelise."  And  again,  "  The  Church  Army 
occupies  no  narrower  basis  in  its  teaching  than  the 
Church  of  England  takes."     On  this  occasion  he  notes  : 

There  is  much  Evangelic  zeal. 

^  I.e.  "  applied  "  to  it,  to  contract  holiness  by  contact. 


i889  VISIT   TO    KILBURN  273 

He  touches  on  certain  weak  points  in  their  organisation, 
such  as  the  literature  issued,  and  the  short  time  allowed  for 
training,  and  then  continues  : — 

It  was  also  against  the  grain  to  see  Religious  experiences  and 
emotionalism  and  the  means  of  rousing  this,  made  the  subject  of 
class  work  with  school  desks  and  blackboard.  Their  life  seemed 
simple  and  strong.  But  the  people  over  them  anxious  and  apolo- 
getic. It  may  be  developed,  but  if  not,  it  will  either  fail  or  be 
a  danger.  I  conversed  with  my  friends  who  were  mustered,  men 
and  women,  on  sincerity,  and,  as  they  all  said,  "they  had  given 
their  hearts  to  the  Lord,"  I  dwelt  encouragingly  on  the  great 
difficulty  I  and  others  had  in  carrying  this  out.  They  seemed 
to  feel  it  less ;  though  I  thought  the  words  bit. 

From  there  went  on  to  St  Augustine's  Sisterhood,  at  Kilburn. 
Here  all  was  dignity,  gravity,  silence,  beauty — most  eager  work 
for  600  orphans — two  great  chapels  building — went  to  the  em- 
broidery room  where  many  hundreds  of  chasubles,  etc.,  complete 
suits  of  vestments,  Roman  colours,  are  annually  made  and  sent 
out  to  priests  over  the  whole  world.  I  told  the  Sister  in  Charge 
to  communicate  to  the  Mother  Superior,  who  was  at  Broadstairs, 
my  opinion  that  "they  are  a  very  formidable  body" — which 
amused  her.  The  idea  of  "  putting  down  Ritualism "  which  a 
large  number  of  these  magnificent  bodies  are  sedulously  propagat- 
ing with  every  advantage  worldly  and  spiritual — their  own  saintly 
lives  first  and  foremost.  "  Agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly  "  is 
rather  the  course  that  seems  now  practicable. 

Truly  the  Church  of  England  is  still  a  powerful  bond  indeed 
when  two  such  institutions  claim  equally  to  belong  to  it,  with 
equal  loyalty,  equal  energy,  equal  persuasion  that  theirs  is  the 
only  faithful  view  of  the  Church's  duty,  the  only  faithful  exposition 
of  her  tone.  God  grant  neither  side  to  part  from  her — the  residue 
would  soon  corrupt  itself — but  their  co-existence  is  full  of  prac- 
tical problems. 

On  the  8th  he  went  with  my  mother  to  stay  with 
Mr  Joseph  Sebag  Montefiore,  High  Sheriff  of  Kent,  at 
East  Cliff,  Ramsgate.     He  writes  : — 

Went  down  to  the  High  Sheriff's  with  my  wife  for  a  garden  party 
and  to  dine  and  sleep.     This  was  Mr  Sebag  Montefiore,  nephew 

B.  II.  18 


2  74  VISIT   TO    MR    MONTEFIORE  aet.  6o 

and  heir  of  Sir  Moses  ^— near  Ramsgate.  Not  a  large  place  at  all, 
commanding  a  most  perfect  sea — full  of  reminiscences  of  the  old 
millionaire  with  his  simplicity  and  his  endless  good  works.  Very 
interesting  to  come  into  the  midst  of  a  family  of  devout  Jews. 
After  lunching  on  Louis  Philippe's  plates  the  men  put  on  their 
hats  and  the  youngest  read  the  beautiful  Hebrew  Grace.  There 
was  a  gorgeous  tent  for  a  cold  collation  of  much  splendour  at 
night.  Lord  and  Lady  Robartes,  Sir  H.  Acland  and  his  sons,  the 
Weigalls.  Besides  these,  Sir  F.  Leighton,  Irving  the  actor,  Stuart 
Cumberland,  and  various  Bohemians,  also  Dr  Adler^  and  the 
head  of  the  Polish  Jews  and  other  great  Jews.  I  had  a  long 
and  animated  controversy  with  Irving  and  Leighton  as  to  the 
theatrical  children,  in  which  we  went  over  the  whole  ground — 
ouSev  TrpocraviOevTO  fxoi  . 

As  we  came  out  of  the  tent,  or  tabernacle  rather,  the  trees, 
the  moon,  the  sea,  the  brilliant  stars  in  the  soft  night,  the  lights 
on  the  headland  made  a  strange  enchanting  picture.  Irving's 
face  is  striking — it  suggests  Hamlet  of  itself.  God  guide  us  in 
this  strange  world. 

It  is  amusing  to  note  that  in  the  Mirror  for  Aug.  19, 
1889,  appeared  a  highly  imaginary  report  of  the  conversa- 
tion which  took  place  between  my  father  and  Sir  Henry 
Irving  about  Church  and  Stage  and  the  employment  of 
children  in  theatres.  This  account,  supplied  by  an  eye- 
witness— "  One  who  was  privileged  to  hear  and  take  part 
in  the  discussion " — is  fastened  into  my  father's  extract 
book  covered  with  queries  and  notes  of  exclamation  in 
his  hand.  At  the  top  is  a  picture  of  the  two  arguing ; 
my  father  is  represented  in  a  long  buttoned  coat 
with  black  gloves — against  this  is  written  in  his  hand, 
"Buttoned!  never!  Gloves!  never!"  He  is  also  repre- 
sented as  wearing  gaiters  which  show  the  buckles  of  his 
shoes.  This  is  also  commented  on  fiercely  at  the  side. 
This  article  concludes  by  quoting  the  usual  figment  about 
Mr  F.  R.  Benson  the  actor  being  the  Archbishop's  nephew. 

^  Who  died  in  1885,  aged  100. 

2  Hermann  Adler,  D.D.,  Chief  Rabbi. 

*  "They  added  nothing  to  me,"  Gal.  ii.  6. 


i889      MR   SPURGEON'S   VISIT   TO   ADDINGTON       275 

A  large  number  of  extracts  about  this  date  are  similarly 
furnished  with  comments,  though  I  cannot  conceive  when 
he  found  time  to  do  it. 

On  August   1 1  th  he  writes  at  Addington  : — 

Two  excellent  sermons  from  my  good  chaplains — Baynes  and 
Donaldson — and  a  perfect  walk  with  my  Maggie.  Air  very  soft. 
Read  Geo.  Herbert's  "Sacrifice"  and  commented  much  on  it 
together — as  we  visited  ponies,  sheep  with  their  bells,  swans 
and  goldfish  in  this  dear  lovely  place.  There  are  workmen  not 
worthy  of  their  hire.  May  I  dare  rather  to  put  it.  How  great  and 
true  ought  to  be  the  work  which  such  "  hire "'  of  nature's  wealth 
as  we  looked  on  from  the  ridges  over  the  pool  engages  a  man  to. 
It  never  can  be  done. 

Re-started  again  a  little  Cyprian — Ritschl's  odious  style. 

On  the   13th  he  writes: — - 

Mr  Spurgeon  came  to  tea  and  we  had  with  us  Canon  Mason, 
and  Tindall'  of  Ashford  and  Clowes^  of  Hayes  who  were  here  to 
consult  on  the  Church  Society  and  its  chances ;  which,  after 
much  work,  is  now  ready  to  appear.  It  is  simple  and  strong, 
I  hope,  in  manliness  and  womanliness  and  in  the  love  of  Christ 
our  Head  and  His  work  and  ours. 

Mr  Spurgeon  is  certainly  uglier  than  I  had  believed.  But  no 
one  could  doubt  his  power  who  heard  him  talk  for  ten  minutes, 
his  great  sense,  his  hearty  readiness,  his  brisk  and  appropriate 
expression,  and  his  good  feeling.  He  would  appeal  to  the  best 
qualities  of  middle-class  minds ;  and  his  speculations  are  such  as 
they  would  follow  and  enjoy.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  what 
place  he  could  have  taken  in  the  Church  of  England — he  illus- 
trates absolutely  the  ''  ratson  d'etre"  of  Nonconformist  association. 
His  memory  is  evidently  most  vivid :  such  numbers  of  good 
stories,  pointed  and  pious,  poured  accurately  out  without  pause, 
half  pathetic,  half  humorous.  Stories  of  himself,  his  early  life,  his 
grandfather  a  Congregational  Minister  at  Topfield,  Essex,  the  black 
silk  stockings  and  buckles  of  him  and  of  the  squire  and  rector. 
The  Monday  Evening  Tea  and  churchwarden  pipes  of  the  three — 
stories  of  how  people  came  to  him  and  implored  him  "  not  to 
tell,"  believing  that  he  had  described  them  in  his  sermon — the 
million  copies  of  one  of  his  books  circulating  in  Russia,  the  "Resti- 

1  Rev.  P.  F.  Tindall.  2  Rev.  George  Clowes. 

18—2 


2  76  VISIT   OF   MR    SPURGEON  aet.  6o 

tution"  which  he  preached  and  the  many  instances  in  which  he  had 
moved  consciences  to  make  restitution  for  old  frauds  or  wrongs, 
his  own  inability  to  remember  any  wrong  done  to  him.  He  said 
he  was  beginning  to  think  that  every  "  Church  "  organisation  had 
its  classes  of  society  or  people  to  which  it  was  adapted,  that  God's 
Spirit  was  large  and  worked  thro'  all — "  God  sends  us  Bishops 
whether  we  want  them  or  not,  and  sends  us  Nonconformists 
whether  we  like  them  or  not."  The  sects  bear  their  testimony, 
and  when  their  point  is  carried  into  the  Church  their  use  ceases — 
"  The  Quakers  have  no  more  place,  no  reason  for  existing — their 
witness  is  worked  into  all  minds,  like  that  of  the  Chartists  into  all 
politics."  "  Have  you  a  Diocese  as  well  as  the  Primacy  ?  What 
is  it?"  "Reverence  is  gone,  there  is  none.  Lawlessness  is  every- 
where. The  High  Church  have  this  great  merit ;  they  make  all 
their  people  reverent."  "The  Baptist  form  of  Church  government 
is  the  worst  there  is.  It  suits  me.  My  deacons  take  all  committees, 
all  trouble  off  my  hands — they  manage  all  finance — they  pass  all 
resolutions  'with  the  sanction  of  the  pastor.'  If  I  don't  approve 
I  draw  my  pen  through  them.  But  that  doesn't  suit  little  men  in 
little  places,  it  becomes  tyranny.  Mine  is  a  benevolent  autocracy 
resting  on  absolute  democracy.  It  had  taken  no  little  tact  and 
trouble  to  keep  a  democracy  straight  38  years.  Americans  always 
come  to  me.  They  go  to  three  places,  Westminster  Abbey, 
St  Paul's,  and  the  Tabernacle."  "There  are  some  heathen  that 
won't  give  in  to  anything  but  the  Word — it  takes  ingenuity  to  find 
the  Word  that  will  convince  them.  It's  not  the  real  meaning 
of  the  passage  that  affects  'them.  It's  the  applicability  of  the 
words  themselves  to  their  particular  case."  So  he  talked  on,  the 
Antiquus  Ego  was  ever  before  his  eyes.  But  he  made  us  all  like 
him  very  much,  and  respect  the  Ego  which  he  respected,  and  feel 
that  he  had  a  very  definite  call  by  the  help  of  it  to  win  souls  for 
Christ,  or  rather  to  help  those  souls  to  Christ  who  were  sure  to 
come  one  way  or  other.  "  I'm  a  very  bad  Calvinist,  quite  a 
Calvinist — I  look  on  to  the  time  when  the  Elect  will  be  all  the 
world."  This  I  don't  understand,  I  fear.  He  stayed  nearly  two 
hours,  interesting  us  all  much,  and  he  drove  away  in  a  very  nice 
brougham  with  two  very  nice  light  chestnuts,  almost  cream- 
coloured,  and  his  coachman  had  a  very  shabby  hat. 

In  Pall  Mall  Gazette  X gives  an  account  of  my  con- 
versation with  Irving  !     God  forgive  him  ! 

Geo.  Trevelyan  recommended  me  the  other  day.  La  Jeunesse  de 


i889  SWITZERLAND  277 

Madame  d' Epinay.  No  romance  could  be  contrived  to  develop  the 
Pre-revolution  Life  in  memoirs  half  so  artificially.  It  wrings  one's 
spirit  to  see  a  weakish,  most  clever,  charming,  innocent,  virtuously- 
set  soul  of  a  girl  driven,  like  a  queen  at  chess  into  a  corner,  into 
situations  where  nothing  but  sin  seemed  humanly  possible.  No- 
thing has  ever  before  shown  me  the  absolute  perversion  of  every 
rank,  more  and  more,  as  higher  and  higher,  with  immoral  turpi- 
tude. "  La  Messe,"  "  Les  Vepres  "  came  in  from  time  to  time. 
A  good  Confessor  and  apparently  uncorrupt  is  always  to  the  fore. 
Yet  no  sense  of  religion  seems  to  exist  in  any  mind,  either  to 
condemn  or  to  comfort.  But  I  see  London  Society  the  last  five 
years  lurching  in  this  direction  at  any  rate.  Nevertheless  there  is 
a  sound  core  in  every  rank. 

On  the  20th  he  says  : — 

Spurgeon  told  me  the  other  day  that  Lord  Shaftesbury  had 
said  to  him,  "You  will  see  the  streets  of  London  swim  with 
blood."  Spurgeon  had  said  in  answer,  "  I  think  not,"  and  he 
remarked  on  the  armies  of  people  who  in  some  form  or  other  are 
trying  to  do  good. 

There  is  abundant  evil  among  rich  people  of  rank — enough  to 
bring  a  revolution  if  it  stood  alone — and  they  are  not  much  worse 
than  some  other  classes.  But  the  difference  is  that  in  Paris  it  did 
stand  alone.  The  piety  of  the  pious  did  not  touch  it — the  de'vots 
were  looked  on  as  nearly  idiotic.  And  the  poor  suffered  horrors 
unapproached.  Nevertheless — we  must  be  up  and  doing  more 
than  fringe-work,  which  is  where  we  are  now. 

On  the  22nd  he  started  for  Switzerland.     He  writes  : — 

Left  dear  Addington  looking  so  fresh  and  refreshing.  But 
we  are  strange  creatures,  and  the  last  fortnight  has  only  driven 
the  London  tiredness  more  over  the  system  so  that  I  cannot  work 
hard  however  hard  I  try,  and  I  shall  not  until  I  have  been  iced  for 
a  month.  This  is  one  of  the  goads  by  which  God  in  our  nature 
drives  us  about.  Else  how  much  more  contentedly  should  I 
stay  here  than  see  the  finest  things  elsewhere.  But  I  know  I 
shall  come  back  braced  and  shall  in  the  meantime  have  written, 
if  God  pleases,  five  charges,  or  a  charge  in  five  pieces,  and  the 
Congress  sermon — while  here  I  cannot  put  ideas  or  words  to- 
gether for  the  moment. 


2  78  THE   RIFFEL   ALP  aet.  6o 

On  the  24th  he  writes  at  Zermatt: — 

For  Saturday  and  Sunday  nights  we  occupy  as  a  salon,  with 
a  screen  for  my  bed,  the  room  in  which  Maggie  had  her  three 
weeks'  illness — while  wife  was  kept  at  home  with  Hughie's  illness. 
There  was  so  much  anxiety,  and  such  fear  of  news — and  the 
sad  death  of  Devas '  on  the  Riffel,  and  the  other  painful  accidents 
—that  strange  dark  light  always  hangs  over  that  time  which  had 
been  devoted  to  rest  and  pleasure.  We  venture  on  the  same 
quest  once  more  thinking  that  we  need  it.  Through  God's 
goodness,  the  same  party  all  well,  all  bright,  except  our  Hughie— 
and  with  Amy^  added.  If  it  please  Him  to  give  it  us  in  brightness 
— may  He  have  first  thought.  If  He  unexpectedly  shadow  it — 
may  He  have  first  thought  still.  I  must  think  much  and  pray 
much  for  Wales,  it  must  be  a  constant  thought.  I  declare  that 
I  feel  less  the  dread  of  Wales  being  hostile  to  the  Church  and 
all  that  might  come  of  this,  than  I  do  of  sorrow  and  shame 
that  it  remains  unwon  to  the  Church,     rt  yivono^ ; 

On  the  25th  he  went  up  to  the  Riffel  Alp  Hotel.  He 
writes  : — 

Aug.  26th. — Monday  a  good  hour's  read  in  the  beautiful  heat 
under  one  or  two  rocks  in  the  meadows  behind  the  hotel.  First 
Epistle  of  St  Peter. — The  Christian  Church  is  to  be  built  out 
of  neglected  elements  ;  in  its  every  stage  and  story  morals  and 
character  are  the  substantial  work  of  it ;  morals  and  character 
can  only  be  elevated  (after  a  certain  point  long  since  reached) 
by  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  Gift  of  God,  both  possible 
only  in  Christ. 

Walked   with   the   Lytteltons'*  yesterday  to  the   Gorges   and 

with  Arthur,  Tatham^  and  Inge".     much  exercised  by  the 

Book  of  Job — and  convinced  that  in  twenty  years  we  shall  all 
believe  that  prophetic  knowledge  of  facts  is  in  quite  another 
region  from  prophetic  wisdom — and  possibly  impossible. 

To-day  the  flowery  fields  rich  in  purple  crocuses — the  peaks 
all  salted  with  snow  in  perfect  purity  s'elangant  with  a  perfect 

1  Killed  on  the  Corner  Glacier.  -  Miss  Hutchinson. 

^  What  will  happen?  *  Mr  and  Mrs  Edward  Lyttelton. 

*  H.   F.   W.   Tatham,  Master  at  Eton. 

*  Pvev.  W.  R.  Inge,  Tutor  of  Hertford  College,   Oxford. 


i889  CHARGE— CHRIST   AND    HIS   TIMES  279 

blue — much  conversation  with  a  friendly  spider  who  had  lost 
a  leg — after  early  luncheon  walked  up  to  the  Riffel  without 
the  least  fatigue,  and  the  pain  in  chest  ceasing  gradually  to 
reproduce  itself  after  deHcious  halts.  These  wicked  peasants 
kill  the  finest  firs  by  hacking  them  that  they  may  carry  away 
the  trees  when  they  are  dead  ;  this  the  Commune  allows  them 
to  do. 

The  text,  if  one  may  call  it  so,  of  the  Charge  he  was 
now  writing  was  the  First  Epistle  of  St  Peter — a  "  concen- 
trated treatise  "  "  showing  how  and  why  the  Church  was 
to  be  constructed."  The  Principles  given  by  St  Peter  he 
applied  to  the  problems  before  the  Church  of  the  day, 
"  Answerably  to  these  three  points  of  St  Peter  arc  the 
three  points  of  the  England  of  the  day."     "  i.    The  problem 

of  the  Poor 2,    The  Gratification  of  Desire... by  which 

they... are  now  engaged  in  unmaking  the  world  nearly  as 

fast  as  it  is  made.     3.    The  production  of  Good "     His 

own  line  of  study  was  not  specially  in  these  directions,  but 
he  felt  that  the  Church  must  deal  with  these  problems,  not 
only  in  a  spirit  of  "  well-meaningness  excited  by  religion," 
but  "  scientifically  and  constructively,"  for  "  the  times  in 
which  Christ  lived  are  not  past.  These  are  Christ's  times. 
He  is  working  on  us  as  much  as  on  the  Galilean  masses." 
With  the  Charge  he  published  his  Sermon  at  Cardiff  on 
"  The  Church's  Oneness — Wales." 

On  Aug.  27th  he  says  in  his  Diary  : — 

Wonderfully  soothing  all  the  great  sights  are.  They  attempt 
nothing,  they  force  nothing.  There  the  peaks  climb  the  sky  and 
fence  the  world,  and  they  fence  you  and  bid  you  climb  without 
a  word  to  you,  and  their  strong  beauty  puts  all  small  thoughts 
to  a  quiet  death — you  feel  as  if  you  had  passed  something  and 
were  on  the  other  side. 

On  the   28th  he  writes  : — 

A  good  morning   at  St   Peter,  Haddan   and  Stubbs' — while 

^  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  pub.  by  S.P.C.K. 


28o  THE    OXFORD   SCHOOL  aet.  6o 

Maggie,  sitting  with  me,  got  through  six  pages  of  Hegel.  Evening 
Princesse  de  Ligne.  Inge  walked  with  me ;  thinks  party  spirit 
high  in  Oxford,  the  High  Churchmen  the  most  influential,  Paget 
and  Gore,  and  the  High  Church  parish,  St  Barnabas,  the  best 
worked  and  most  effective.  But  in  spite  of  all  a  gradual  alienation 
of  intellect  in  progress,  from  ritualistic  school. 

I  see  in  this  school  what  Newman  speaks  of  as  "  higher  tints 
of  summer  past,"  a  gaudy  autumnal  colouring  which  has  nothing 
but  winter  to  follow  it.  It  will  not  leave  such  laymen  as  both 
Arnold  and  Newman  left  behind  them,  who  have  no  successors. 

I  believe  the  "  hard  work  "  of  the  ritualists  to  be  such  as  is 
Drought  out  by  any  and  every  party  enthusiasm  for  a  time — and 
do  not  believe  that  the  churches  are  filled  by  their  ritual,  but 
only  as  a  consequence  of  that  very  good  work — which  other 
watchwords  would  equally  evoke. 

On  Sept.  2nd  he  writes : — 

With  wife,  N.,  M.,  and  A.,  and  a  handsome  old  guide  to  the 
glacier  and  walked  on  it  with  fresh  delight.  A  great  blessing 
of  advancing  years  that  everything  looks  larger,  more  beautiful 
and  more  mysterious  year  after  year.  The  eleventh  fine  and  sixth 
glorious  day.  No  change  in  the  majesty  of  sky  or  variety  of 
cloud,  until  at  evening  the  light  of  dim  gold  along  the  velvety 
slopes  tempered  with  shadows  of  clouds  was  just  as  if  the  sun 
felt  he  could  cope  with  these  mountains  no  longer — it  was 
impossible  to  give  them  all  the  light  they  needed,  and  then  out 
came  the  moon  with  a  thin  veil  and  made  the  streams  from  the 
Matterhorn  give  light  too.  The  delight  of  the  girls  at  the  seracs 
with  their  light  blue  clefts.  We  could  gather  Edelweiss  on  the 
way.  Tosswill '  and  Fred  and  their  guides  crossed  us  swinging 
along  for  the  Matterhorn,  and  at  the  same  time  Arthur  and 
Tatham  were  setting  off  for  the  Rothhorn.  To  have  two  boys 
going  up  two  such  places  the  same  moment,  and  a  girl  setting 
off  to  meet  one  of  them  at  the  Schwarze  See  early  to-morrow. 
Getting  on  very  fairly  with  my  charge. 

In  the  evening  lost  my  signet  till  a  good  lady,  a  stranger  in 
the  hotel,  restored  it  to  me. 

The  Strike  of  the  Dock  Labourers  continues.  The  Sweating 
Committee  brought  out  that  the  casual  labourers  at  the   Dock 

^  Assistant-master  at  Harrow  School. 


i889  THE    DOCK    STRIKE  281 

Gates  are  no  real  labourers,  but  men  who  have  rendered  or 
found  every  better  position  or  work  in  life  impossible  for  them- 
selves. It  is  not  here  that  the  seriousness  of  the  thing  lies ;  but  in 
the  well-paid  regular  men  never  out  of  employment  joining  with 
them,  and  well-to-do  artisans,  unconcerned  in  the  whole  thing, 
with  them.  This,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  ready  to  starve  for  the 
cause  is  what  shows  that  the  movement  is  social ;  not  a  matter 
of  wages  alone.  Manning,  as  his  wont  is,  appears  on  the  scene, 
drives  through  the  crowd,  enters  the  Committee  Room  ;  all  that 
passes  is  to  be  confidential ;  reappears,  drops  (as  if  he  didn't 
intend  it)  the  word  that  "  he  hopes  he  has  done  some  good,"  is 
loudly  applauded  by  the  crowd,  drives  off.  Those  who  know  the 
man,  and  his  resourceless  brain,  his  character  and  knowledge  of 
dramatic  effect,  will  not  be  deceived.     All  others  will '. 

The  Church,  which  is  really  working  heart  and  soul,  mind 
and  body,  without  flaunting  and  without  screeching,  for  the  good 
of  these  poor  victims  at  once  of  social  pressure  and  of  base 
orators,  is  at  present  nothing  in  common  talk  but  "  the  Parsons." 
Perhaps  it  is  good  for  us  that  it  should  for  a  time  so  continue. 

On   Sept.    13th   he  w^rites  : — 

By  7.40  a.m.  we  were  watching  our  two  children^  with  their 
guides  seated  on  the  highest  point  of  the  Rothhorn,  the  sun 
shining  full  on  them,  and  a  brilliant  white  bank  of  snow  behind 
them  evidently  shielding  them  perfectly  from  the  wind  which 
was  blowing  quietly  from  the  north.  Through  the  powerful 
telescope  they  were  waving  to  us  as  they  promised  and  shaking 
hands  with  their  guides.  It  was  delicious  to  see  them  at  the 
end  of  their  climb  through  the  night  so  triumphant  and  happy 
as  we  knew  they  must  be. 

It  was  too  close,  too  large  a  parable  of  others  whom  we 
cannot  see.  We  only  saw  them  begin  their  journey,  and  cannot 
see  either  their  own  seeming  happiness  or  their  interest  in  us. 

In  the  afternoon  C.  B.  H.  and  I  walked  down  and  met  them 
by  the  Chapel  at  Winkelmatten,  in  which  the  old  priest  was 
praying  alone. 


^  It  will  be  seen  from  the  entry  below  on  Sept.   17  that  the  Archbishop 
thought  very  differently  of  Cardinal  Manning's  intervention  a  few  days  later. 
^  My  sister  Nelly  and  my  brother  Fred. 


282  THE    RIFFEL   ALP  aet.  6o 

On  Sept.   1 6th  he  writes  : — 

Quite  early  quite  clear — a  little  later  strange  spongy  brown 
clouds  veiled  the  feet  of  the  Matterhorn — a  little  later  and  it 
and  the  Dent  Blanche  and  all  the  rest  were  covered  with  deep 
silent  (why  silent?),  yes,  silent  masses  of  mist — and  it  became 
intensely  cold.  But  as  we  turned  down  there  was  the  most 
beautiful  sight — all  but  the  side  and  peak  of  the  centre  Gabelhorn 
wrapped  with  the  wildest,  most  wreathed  and  swept  about,  and 
overhanging  and  drooping,  sheets  of  falling  snow,  which,  as  it 
shot  out  into  the  warmer  air  of  the  valley  below  our  feet,  seemed 
to  melt  on  it  and  be  dissolved  in  it  and  not  fall  at  all — while 
it  was  whitening  the  upper  mountain  slopes.  But  in  the  centre 
of  all  this  snow  and  snowy  vapour  shone  palely  the  peak  and  sides 
of  the  mountain,  in  every  shade  of  pearly  grey  and  soft  yellowy 
greens — -the  tints  innumerable  with  only  these  colours  on  the 
falling  slopes,  and  buttresses  and  parapets — and,  below  just  this 
side  vision  into  the  darkening  peak  above,  all  was  vapour  again. 

If  only  these  heavenly  sights  were  recoverable  at  will.  They 
come  in  moments  suddenly  just  between  sleeping  and  waking, 
and  over  a  drowsy  page  sometimes,  and  in  a  moment  in  a  dull 
debate — but  not  when  one's  will  is  active.  What  does  that  mean 
in  our  nature? 

On  the    17th   he  notes: — 

Cardinal  Manning  has  done  well  in  London.  But  why  has 
my  dear  Bishop  of  London  gone  back  and  left  it  to  him  ?  Are 
the  dockers  on  strike  Roman  Catholics  all  ?  must  be  I  think. 
The  Committee  acknowledges  the  assistance  they  have  received 
from  the  Bishop  of  London  and  others  though  the  negociations 
have  fallen  chiefly  to  the  three,  Manning,  Lord  Mayor,  and  Sydney 
Buxton.  M.  in  his  final  little  speech  says  he  should  have  been 
guilty  of  dereliction  of  duty  if  he  had  not  tried  to  do  what  his 
position  demanded.  Whatever  that  may  be  he  has  done  it  well 
and  with  deserved  honour. 

On  the    1 8th  he  says: — 

Wife  and  Maggie  to  Schwarze  See.  I  walked  to  the  Lower 
Theodule  hut  with  Fred  and  with  Amy  Hutchinson ;  the  circle 
of  mountains  with  their  so  diverse  characters  most  beautiful  and 
most  solemn — I  hope  I  carry  away  something  of  the  spirit  of 
power  and  of  calmer  energy  which  is  in  this  still  scene — not  a 


i889  THE   CARDIFF  CHURCH   CONGRESS  283 

particle  of  a  glacier  or  of  a  rock  which  is  not  doing  its  work — not 
a  particle  fussing  itself,  or  doing  any  other  particle's  work — and 
not  a  particle  which  is  not  in  its  due  relation  to  the  whole. 

I  confess  that  the  weary  waiting  for  that  Tithe  Bill  when  one 
was  so  tired  already  with  London  work  and  the  disappointment 
about  it,  sent  me  here  in  a  mood  not  keen  to  make  the  most 
of  all.  And  here  the  very  heavy  work  which  I  have  brought  with 
me  and  have  not  half  got  through  has  kept  me  backward  in 
the  spirit  of  thankfulness  and  resolution.  This  is  the  only  off 
day  I  have  had  since  my  "  holiday "  began.  The  only  off  day 
since  this  time  last  year. 

God  give  me  grace  to  see  something  of  His  purpose  in  this 
slow  and  heavy  pressure.  It  must  be  on  many  more.  Perhaps 
it  is  a  little  like,  these  glaciers  themselves — driven  forward  by 
such  pressure,  but  driven  by  an  invisible  slowness.  Much  modern 
life  is  like  that.  It  comes  from  the  whole  world  being  too  busy 
to  move. 

Farewell  to  the  Riffel  at  5  a.m.  for  ever. 

On   Sept.   29th  he  says : — 

My  Maggie  has  read  over  for  me  and  with  me  my  paper 
on  Socialism.  She  has  indeed  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  subject 
and  its  Hterature,  is  perfectly  ready  with  illustrations,  and  the 
calmest  judgment  not  only  about  the  things  but  about  the  effect 
which  any  particular  utterances  are  likely  to  have  at  present^ 
and  an  excellent  critic  of  expression. 

On  the  30th  of  Sept.  he  went  to  Llandaff  to  attend 
the  Church  Congress  at  Cardiff.     He  writes : — 

Preached  in  St  John's  Cardiff  to  an  immense  congregation. 
My  point  was  to  illustrate  the  undividedness  of  the  Church  of 
Wales  and  England  in  its  history,  and  they  ask  leave  now  to 
translate  the  thing  into  Welsh — a  self-afflictive  kind  of  com- 
pliment. I  don't  at  all  like  what  my  dear  mother  would  have 
called  "  trapesing "  such  an  immense  distance  with  hundreds  of 
parti-coloured  clergy  and  with  a  Primatial  cross  and  train-bearer 
through  banner-hung  open  streets  amid  vast  numbers  of  people — 
all  silent  and  respectful,  but  not,  as  a  rule,  salutatory.  The 
Congress  men  in  general  say  the  sight  of  the  procession  of  the 
Church  will  "do  the  people  good";  "do  the  people  good"— 
what  good  ?     I  yearn  over  the  troops  and  troops  of  young  men— 


284  THE    CARDIFF   CHURCH    CONGRESS      aet.  60 

in  greasy  pot  hats  and  work-marked  coats  and  pocketted  hands, 
who  Hned  the  streets,  more  conspicuous  than  any  other  class  of 
starers — perfectly  well-behaved  and  rather  (very  rather)  impressed 
anxious  countenances — I  don't  think  the  Kingdom  of  God  comes 
nearer  to  these. 

Bishop's  address  was  good,  assigning  all  modern  conciliar 
action  to  Church  Congresses,  as  to  a  fountain.  Then  the  readers 
and  speakers,  all  goodzV/^  (on  "the  way  of  the  Church  to  deal 
with  increasing  populations  "),  but  all  tending  to  the  bland  triumph 
of  the  parochial  clergy  and  all  fertile  in  rich  schemes  of  which 
the  only  demerit  was  that  the  authors  all  went  on  the  hypothesis 
that  human  nature  in  other  people  was  very  different  from  what 
it  is  (visibly)  in  themselves.  At  night  a  Welsh  Service  in  the 
Cathedral  and  Welsh  sermon  by  St  Asaph.  The  hymns  really 
a  great  act  of  worship — the  whole  crowded  congregation  sing 
in  most  perfect  unbrokenness — very  fine  tunes  with  a  wonderful 
lilt.  The  language  is  so  melodious — it  suits  hymns  so  well — 
they  have  so  large  a  repertory  of  hymns — hymns  are  so  dear 
to  the  people — and  the  Church  service  sounds  throughout  so 
attractive  in  this  tongue — that  I  certainly  think  that  the  language 
may  be  retained  for  some  parts  of  the  Service  perhaps  years  after 
English  has  become  the  regular  language  (as  it  must  do)  of  their 
common  life — it  was  by  some  such  process  that  Latin  lingered 
on  as  the  language  of  worship  in  the  Roman  Church.  It  must 
have  felt  monstrous  to  give  it  up  for  barbarian  idioms  and  per- 
versions, yet  they  ought  to  have  done  it  even  then. 

His  sister  Eleanor,  Mrs  Hare,  was  at  this  time  ill  of  a 
mortal  illness.     He  wrote  on  Oct.  8th  : — 

Went  to  Gosbury  Hill  to  see  my  dear  sister  Eleanor — she 
knows  she  will  never  rise  from  her  bed,  and  that  the  end  is  near 
— but  she  is  quite  easy  and  quiet  and  full  of  thought  and  direction 
for  everyone — and  looks  well  and  handsomer  than  ever.  There 
the  people  all  now  are  in  despair.  Mr  Hare  is  almost  silent — 
looks  very  old  and  very  strong  in  mind — pathetic  indeed  to  see 
the  nicely  ordered  house — the  fine  trees,  the  beautiful  flowers,  all 
the  house  in  order  and  sweetness — and  to  see  the  soul  of  it  all 
stricken  in  such  full  vigour. 

She  has  some  troubles  over  her  faith — but  her  comfort  is  in 
Christ — she  likes  to  receive  the  Sacrament  and  to  be  spoken  to 


i889  THE    DISCIPLINE    OF   WEAKNESS  285 

about  Him — she  has  been  a  busy  servant.     Our  uncle  Alfred '  has 
come  from  Edgbaston  to  see  her — he  had  no  hope. 

To  Professor    Westcott. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
\-]th  Oct.  1889. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

Thank  you  for  your  kind  but  sad  letter — I  am  so 
deeply  sorry  yet  thankful  that  you  cut  off  some  of  your  work. 

Really  doing  that  with  vigour  may  soon — I  trust — restore  the 
vigour  you  long  for. 

But  I  know  that  that  Wonderful  Hand  which  from  time  to 
time  just  presses  us  back — "  Lie  down — be  quiet — never  mind— 
you  are  not  to  do  it — never  mind  why,"  and  all  the  rest  of  Its 
simple  repressives,  which  we  cannot  in  the  least  make  head  against, 
mysterious  as  it  seems,  is  the  kindest  Hand  our  lives  know. 
What  a  blessing  to  those  whose  very  existence  is  Awd/xeOa'-',  to 
find  a  better  existence  just  below  that  mark. 

But  you  see  that  I  am  only  learning  what  you  know,  so  I  had 
better  be  silent  of  that. 

Thank  you  for  your  word  of  cheer.  I  am  going  straight  on, 
by  His  grace,  without  breaking  down,  though  I  never  feel  at  night 
that  it  may  not  have  come  before  morning.  Pressure  is  strong — 
tTTou/Aci/os  ^ — and  the  attitudes  of  churchmen  so — ?  fantastic  ? 

But  if  you  can  put  a  few  sentences  on  paper  to  tell  me  w/ia^ 
this  Cambridge  Protest*  is  in  importance — or  7ii/mf  the  dear  Bishop 
of  Lincoln  himself  is — in  relation  to  one's  duty  and  the  view  of  it 
from  the  outside  and  from  above — I  should  value  it  much. 

One  seems  now  to  go  on,  not  daring  to  guess  the  end,  not 
knowing  whether  it  is  a  scene  in  a  drama — or  an  isolated  tale. 

I  trust  to  hear  better  news  of  yourself  before  long. 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  the  22nd  of  October  he  delivered  his  Charge  to 
the    Diocese   of  Canterbury,   beginning  his   Visitation   in 

^  Alfred  Baker,  a  surgeon. 

"  We  are  able. 

•*  Grievously  weighed  down.     Aesch.  fr.  365. 

*  See  p.  350. 


286  COMMUNITIES  aet.  6o 

Canterbury    Cathedral.      This    was    afterwards    published 
under  the  title  of  "  Christ  and   His  Times." 
On  November  7th  he  writes  : — 

At  12  gave  Benediction  at  All  Saints  Sisterhood  to  three 
sisters  professed  earlier  in  the  day  wearing  their  white  wreaths 
still,  and  two  others  and  two  lay  sisters — and  addressed  the 
Community.  Had  interview  with  Father  Benson  who  desires 
new  Statutes  and  to  be  "Warden"  instead  of  Chaplain,  and  with 
the  Mother  who  will  sign  no  new  Statutes.  An  interview  with 
Lord  Grimthorpe  at  Lambeth — refused  to  agree  to  his  proposed 
Bill  substituting  Deprivation  for  Imprisonment,  without  previous 
consultation  with  the  Bishops.  He  was  agreeable,  but  the  inter- 
view terminated  with  a  minacious  "very  well"  from  him. 

To  the  Dean  of  Windsor. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

Nov.  iiih,  1889. 
My  dearest  Dean, 

I  had  a  good  talk  with  Grimthorpe  on  Thursday.  I 
pointed  out  that  it  was  an  act  of  war  to  alter  only  clerical  imprison- 
ment for  contumacy,  imprisonment  for  other  contumacy  remaining. 
He  went  away  to  look  up  Lord  Selborne's  Bill  which  he  had 
forgotten.  He  says  Lord  Salisbury  had  said  to  Halifax,  "  If  that 
bill  passes  it  will  dish  you."  I  said  Gladstone  wouldn't  let  it  pass 
in  the  Commons,  but  he  said  his  power  was  waning,  and  the 
Commons  would  pass  it  with  a  rush  if  a  Protestant  feeling  was 
awakening  (as  it  is  said  to  be  in  the  North).  Meetings  were 
going  to  be  held  everywhere.  I  told  him  I  could  do  nothing 
without  the  opinion  of  the  Bishops,  and  he  went  away  with  a  kind 
of  minacious  "  Very  well !"  But  he  was  on  the  whole  pleasant.  He 
said  people  said,  "  Bishops  will  do  nothing,  and  if  anyone  else  does, 
the  Bishops  won't  help." 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  the  22nd  of  Nov.  he  went  to  stay  at  Sevenoaks  with 
Lord  and  Lady  Hillingdon : — 

In  the  afternoon  a  longish  S.P.G.  meeting  at  Sevenoaks  in 
which  Dr  Codrington,  Tucker,  self  and  others  spoke  lovingly  and 


i889  UNITY   IN   THE   CHURCH  287 

interested  the  people  who  won't  come  ordinarily.  Lord  Hillingdon 
and  Lord  Stanhope  set  a  good  example  to  the  laymen,  which  was 
not  followed.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  represent  to  the  ordinary 
unimaginative,  work-and-rest  and  don't-bother-me  Englishman  of 
the  day  a  notion  of  what  is  meant  by  mission  work,  what  romance 
and  power  and  influence  on  the  future  underlies  it.  I  spoke 
tamely,  I  don't  know  why. 

A  good  walk  and  sensible  talk  about  work  and  poverty  with 

Lady .     She  told  me  that  Mr  X (a  scientist)  would  not 

talk  to  her  of  matters  of  religion.  "You  must  not  ask  me.  I  do 
not  know.  I  trust,  but  I  cannot  prove  anything — I  do  not  know  that 
there  has  been  an  eternity  in  the  past,  and  I  do  not  know  that  there 
will  be  an  eternity  in  the  future."  If  this  is  correctly  represented, 
is  it  not  in  so  nice  a  man  a  perfect  instance  (i)  of  scientific 
ignorance  as  to  the  nature  of  faith — and  (2)  of  absolute  scientific 
coxcombry  ? 

About  this  time  he  had  an  interview  with  an  ambitious 
clergyman  ;  he  details  the  substance  of  the  conversation, 
adding :  "  He  has  the  manners  of  Daniel's  he-goat  and  like 
him  pushes  towards  the  east  and  towards  the  south." 

The  President  of  the  Church  Association  wrote  to  the 
Archbishop  to  complain  of  the  high  ritual  used  in  the 
church  of  St  Mary's,  Cardiff,  when  the  Bishop  of  Derry 
preached  at  the  opening  of  the  Church  Congress. 

The  Archbishop  in  the  course  of  his  reply  said. 

Since  you  deplore  what  you  describe  as  the  "  destruction  of 
all  hopes  of  reunion  at  home,"  I  take  leave  to  say  that  it  is  hard  to 
realise  what  sort  of  hopes  of  reunion  are  dear  to  associations,  on 
whichever  side  engaged,  to  whom  their  own  uncompromising 
opinion  is  the  only  endurable  law. 

Men  who  seek  the  "peace  of  Jerusalem"  will  detach  themselves 
from  factions  within. 

On  Dec.  6th  he  says  : — 

In  rebuking  the  Church  Association  I  used  to  Capt.  Cobham 
words  implying  that  both  sides  had  their  factions  which  people 
ought  to  keep  out  of.     Denison '  wrote  me  an  amusing  fury  of  an 

^  Archdeacon  of  Taunton. 


288  ILLNESS   OF   HIS   SISTER  aet.  6o 

epistle  in  which  he  says  I  must  mean  the  E.C.U.,  and  proceeds  to 
enlighten  me  on  the  history  of  the  E.C.U.,  which,  says  he,  was 
established  to  protect  us  against  godless  Education  Acts.  So  it 
was,  and  has  as  much  to  do  with  them  as  Dean  with  ten  \  I  wrote 
a  lemon-like  letter  and  all  the  energies  of  all  my  friends  have  been 
devoted  for  a  week  to  getting  it  sweet — and  at  last  a  watery  note 
has  gone  against  my  convictions. 

Went  over  to  see  my  dear  Eleanor ;  visibly  dying — still  more 
cheerful  than  any  creature — lamenting  that  in  a  sick  room  there  is 
no  time  to  read,  think  or  do  anything — simply  because  with 
undiminished  energy  she  insists  on  being  the  centre  of  all  work. 
Very  anxious  that  all  people  should  know  that  they  must  be 
devout  and  religious  while  they  are  well,  because  they  will  have 
neither  inclination  nor  time  for  it  when  they  are  ill.  She  is  as 
beautiful  as  ever — her  more  delicate  colour  increases  it.  We  had 
a  quiet  peaceful  talk  about  holiness  and  how  Trpaorrj?  -  however, 
difficult  for  her  and  me,  is  the  characteristic  of  "Christ's  Re- 
ligion." 

On  Dec.  8th  he  writes  : — 

Went  with  Lucy  Tait  and  Baynes. 

Confirmed   at   X 19  girls  and  4  boys,  of  whom  2  were 

ours  from  here.  Is  this  the  fruit  of  a  year's  high  church  work? 
The  seats  all  new — the  people  in  crowds — every  light  low. 

Afterward  by  the  pond,  under  the  old  elms,  the  ground 
powdered  with  snow,  the  church  windows  shining  and  lights 
gleaming  from  the  Court,  dear  village  groups  forming  in  parties  in 
the  falling  twilight. 

On  Dec.  9th  he  wrote  : — 

Light  low.  Rode  to  the  old  Archbishop's  Palace  at  Croydon 
and  saw  the  Kilburn  Sisters'  new  school ;  Sister  Elizabeth  and 
another  just  establishing  themselves  with  a  school,  between  the 
Elementary  and  the  High  School.  A  "  ninepenny  school "  much 
wanted  there — curious  to  see  the  old  guardroom  with  its  palatial 
proportions  clustered  with  fair  bright  children  and  nuns.  Hall 
too  ruinous — vast  space  to  spare — height  and  mighty  walls. 

Then  on  to  Selhurst  to  see  Mr  Paterson  and  the  schools  and 
Church  squeezed  into  the  very  inches  that  lie  between  the  railway 
embankment  and  the  thronged  tramroad. 

^  Decanus  is  derived  from  decern.  -  Meekness. 


i889       LAST   LETTER   OF   BISHOP    LIGHTFOOT        289 

Writing  to  the  Bishop  of  Durham  on  Dec.  nth  about 
the  illness  of  his  sister  he  says  : — 

What  a  strange  short  thing  this  life  of  ours  is — strange  that  so 
much  should  tumble  it.  The  Incarnation  is  the  only  thing  which 
seems  to  draw  music  out  of  its  fretting  wires. 

Bishop  Lightfoofs  last  letter. 

Imperial  Hotel,  Bournemouth. 

Dec.  i/\th,  1889. 

My  dearest  Archbishop, 

Under  any  other  circumstances  I  should  at  once  have 
acquiesced  in  such  a  request  coming  from  the  Bishops ' ;  though 
indeed  I  should  have  nothing  to  offer  but  counsels  of  patience. 
There  is  nothing  so  dangerous  on  such  a  topic  as  the  desire  to 
make  everything  right  and  tight.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is 
that  my  mind  is  not  logical,  but  I  find  that  my  faith  suffers 
nothing  by  leaving  a  thousand  questions  open,  so  long  as  I  am 
convinced  on  two  or  three  main  lines. 

But  I  dare  not  undertake  the  paper.  Though  I  may  be  said 
in  many  respects  to  be  better,  and  though  I  seem  to  have  a  large 
reserve  of  strength  to  draw  from,  I  knoiv  myself  that  the  thread 
might  snap  at  any  moment.  I  do  not  tell  people  so,  because  I 
look  so  well  that  they  would  not  believe  me  and  because  there  is 
no  object  in  distressing  others.  Moreover,  they  would  try  to  cheer 
me  up,  and  bid  me  not  be  desponding.  This  I  am  not ;  but  I 
see  no  gain  in  ignoring  facts.  Meanwhile  I  am  happy  enough,  if 
I  am  permitted  day  by  day  to  do  a  little  more  work,  and  await 
the  end — shall  we  say  the  beginning  ?  be  it  far  or  near.  By  the 
way,  I  have  been  working  at  your  old  subject — Hippolytus — as  an 
Appendix  to  the  second  edition  of  my  Clement,  and  find  it  full  of 
interest.  Recent  Archaeological  discovery  throws  much  light  on 
the  legendary  history.  It  is  a  perfect  delight  to  have  such  a 
guide  as  De  Rossi,  who  is  a  true  genius — wise,  learned  and 
penetrative. 

You  must  take  my  opinion  of  my  state  of  health  for  what  it  is 
worth.  Of  course  I  am  not  the  best  judge.  Meanwhile  I  am  not 
without  hope  that  early  in  the  year — January  or  February — I  may 

1  That  he  would  write  a  paper  on  the  teaching  of  the  Church  in  relation  to 
recent  views  of  Inspiration  of  Scripture,  for  the  Bishops. 

B.  II.  19 


290  DEATH   OF   BISHOP    LIGHTFOOT          aet.  6o 

get  to  the  Riviera — Bordighera  seems  the  most  likely  place — and 
see  whether  really  warm  weather  will  produce  any  effect. 

I  am  grieved  to  hear  about  your  sister,  though  I  confess  I  did 
not  expect  a  better  account  from  what  I  had  heard.  How 
strangely  it  brings  back  memories  of  boyhood. 

Perhaps  you  had  better  say  nothing  about  what  I  have  said  of 
myself — I  dread  the  spread  of  alarmist  news.  But  I  did  not 
think  it  right  to  conceal  hoxnyou  what  is  passing  through  my  mind. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

J.    B.    DUNELM. 

On    Dec.    21st    the    Bishop    died.      The    Archbishop 

wrote  : — 

A  telegram  from  Eden  at  Bournemouth  that  my  dearest  and 
oldest  friend  passed  away  peacefully  at  3.45  this  afternoon. 
Forty-seven  years  of  a  friendship  which  never  had  one  hour's 
interruption  and  of  which  every  hour  was  uplifting.  He  was  right 
then  in  that  last  beautiful  letter :  though  I  thought  the  doctors 
must  be  right. 

There  never  was  a  life  taken  before  the  Throne  more  charged 
with  perfect  service — as  unselfish  as  it  was  solid.  And  he  laid  it 
daily  and  hourly  before  God  as  the  di/ox^eXc's^  thing  which  he  was 
privileged  to  present  because  it  was  his  best — but  his  best  was 
better  than  all  our  best. 

To  think  that  I  have  been  allowed  to  have  this  man  for  my 
bosom  friend  since  I  was  14 — I  have  had  the  thought  of  him 
always  as  part  of  myself  in  whatever  I  thought  and  whatever  I  had 
to  do ;  even  when  there  was  no  talking  or  ^mting  about  it.  I 
think  the  thing  which  I  care  for  almost  most  in  life  as  a  token  of 
blessing  is  that  he  told  the  men  at  the  great  King  Edward  School 
dinner  that  I  was  "  praecordialissimus  "  to  himself  always. 

I  recollect  M.  S.  once  told  me  that  when  her  eldest  son  was 
born  she  thought  how  evil-hearted  she  was  because  she  had  no 
inclination  to  "joy  because  a  man  was  born  into  the  world";  her 
joy  was  that  he  was  born  to  herself. 

All  the  people  keep  writing  to  me  to  tell  me  that  he  is  a  loss 
to  Christendom,  to  the  Church,  to  the  world,  and  so  he  is ;  but  I 
cannot  rise  to  be  sorry  for  f/iem.     Ti  pe'fw,  yevoLfxav^ ; 

^  Unprofitable. 

^  Probably  freely  quoted  from  Aesch.  Eiim.  789,  Ti  p^Jw,  yivufiiu ;   "  What 
am  I  to  do,  what  can  become  of  me  ?  " 


i889  FUNERAL   OF   BISHOP    LIGHTFOOT  291 

On  the  26th  he  went  to  attend  the  funeral  at 
Durham  : — 

The  rites  at  Durham  and  Auckland  most  beautiful.  Late 
yestreen  he  was  brought  and  laid  eastward  in  the  middle  of  the 
Chapel  of  the  Nine  Altars  with  tapers  at  head  and  foot,  and  the 
red  Cross  overlying  him  on  the  purple  pall.  Clergy  watched 
through  the  night  in  relays.  Next  morning  the  choir  perfectly 
filled  with  clergy  and  the  nave  with  people.  I  was  on  North  side 
of  Sanctuary  and  his  coffin  now  before  the  Altar.  It  was  borne 
by  Auckland  students  in  relays.  The  great  people  of  the  County 
and  all  manner  of  "  representatives "  followed  him — and  poor 
miners  are  getting  confirmed  because  "  he  told  them  and  they 
didn't  mind,  but  now  he  is  gone  they  must." 

There  is  no  class  of  men  which  this  scholar  has  not  touched. 
The  simple,  sincere,  unpretending  heart  of  him  was  greater  than 
his  great  criticism. 

At  Auckland  the  Chapel  with  its  reredos  and  beautiful 
windows  seemed  reborn  through  him.  He  loved  it,  and  the 
last  time  I  was  here  he  went  round  dwelling  on  the  force  and 
teaching  and  art  of  each  window.  Now  they  shine  on  the 
flowers  which  heap  his  grave.  He  lies  between  Cosin^  and  the 
Altar.  I  read  the  last  collect  which  we  so  often  read  together 
in  our  boyish  "  Commemoration." 

Westcott  threw  the  earth  "upon  the  body."  His  faith  is  such 
that  his  face  is  quite  bright. 

Took  luncheon  at  the  Dean's,  who  is  full  of  anxieties,  the 
Archbishop  of  York  threatening  to  issue  himself  the  Commission 
to  Bishop  Sandford  to  ordain  etc. — the  old  privilege  of  the 
Chapter.  Lord  Ravensworth,  Talbot,  all  in  trouble ;  and  the 
vast  church  reprovingly  calm  and  grand  over  the  aching. 

I  left  Durham  with  Davidson  and  Mason  at  4.16  p.m.  and 
reached  Addington  before  i  a.m. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  year  he  wrote : — 

There  is  something  wonderful  in  Robert  Browning  being 
buried  the  last  day  of  the  year — a  very  complete  life  in  its  way. 

Life  wears  apace,  when  I  think  how  I  remember  Browning 
beginning,  and  all  the  world  finding  him  too  new-fangled  for 
anything  and  queer  beyond  endurance — and  that  I  have  seen  him 

^  Bishop  of  Durham  from  1660  to  1672. 

19—2 


292  FUNERAL   OF   ROBERT    BROWNING      aet.  6o 

laid  to  rest  in  Poets'  Corner.  I  wonder  whether  I  have  anywhere 
put  down  a  walk  with  Bradley  and  Tennyson.  Bradley  had  been 
reading  me  The  Granwiarian! s  Funeral — and  he  said,  "  We'll  ask 
Tennyson  whether  Browning's  writing  at  large  is  poetry  or  no." 
Tennyson's  answer  was  "  I'll  think  about  it."  In  a  walk  a  week 
later  apropos  of  nothing  he  observed,  "I  have  thought,  and  it  is." 
We  had  no  idea  for  a  moment  as  to  what  he  spoke  of.  In  my 
last  talk  with  Browning  himself  I  said,  "  What  all  want  is  some 
more  Men  and  Women,  not  so  many  riddles  of  language."  He 
said,  quite  with  surprise,  "  Men  and  Women  !  I've  got  thousands 
of  such  things  in  my  portfolios."  I  hope  we  may  now  taste  them. 
He  has  been  a  noble  Doctor  all  in  all. 

It  was  interesting  to  see  what  I  think  we  should  scarce  see  out 
of  England — the  President  of  the  Royal  Academy,  of  the  College 
of  Music'  and  other  such-like  men,  many  in  number,  joining 
with  most  sympathetic  looks  to  sing  a  Hymn  and  its  Amen. 

I  could  not  help  watching  Sir  F.  Leighton's  lips  moving  with 

"  Be  Thou  our  Guide  while  troubles  last, 
And  our  Eternal  Home.     Amen." 

A told  me  that  he  stood  by  Browning  at  a  late  funeral  in 

the  Abbey — and  that  Browning  said,  "When  the  Lord's  Prayer 
began  I  looked  at  Huxley  and  grinned— I  said  to  myself,  '  That 
means  something  to  me  !  and  to  you  it's  nothing.' "  Browning's 
work  will  last  on  that  elemental  account  more  than  on  others  of 
which  he  was  more  conscious. 

My  father  and  mother  went  to  the  funeral,  my  father 
not  in  robes,  but  as  a  private  mourner.  He  had  a  tempered 
admiration  for  Browning  as  a  poet,  but  believed  him  to  be 
a  great  teacher ;  I  imagine  that  in  this  respect  he  rather 
took  Browning's  greatness  for  granted  on  the  authority  of 
Bishop  Westcott,  who  was  an  ardent  reader  of  Browning ; 
my  father  read  Browning,  but  always  aloud  and  not  to 
himself;  the  poems  he  read  most  often  were  those  of  a 
mediaeval  character ;  Browning's  dramatic  realisation  of 
Mediaevalism  formed  the  chief  attraction  for  my  father, 
though  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra,  Saul,  Christmas  Eve  and  Easter 

1  Sir  George  Grove. 


1890  THE   BISHOPRIC   OF   DURHAM  293 

Day  were  great  favourites  of  his.  For  Browning  as  an 
artist  he  had  the  feeling  half-admiring,  half-hostile  that 
two  rhetoricians  of  very  marked  individuality,  with  rugged 
mannerisms  that  they  justified  to  themselves,  would  be 
likely  to  have  for  each  other.  At  the  funeral  the  Arch- 
bishop sat  in  the  stall  next  the  Dean's,  and  shared  a 
hymn-book  with  Sir  F.  Leighton  at  the  grave :  the  day 
was  cold,  and  I  remember  seeing  my  father  in  a  very 
thick  coat,  pale  with  emotion,  his  hair  very  silvery  on  his 
shoulders,  his  eyes  full  of  tears  :  but  it  was  an  impersonal 
emotion,  "  hysterica  passio,"  for  he  had  no  depth  of  friend- 
ship with  Browning,  and  with  regard  to  his  later  writings, 
he  considered  that  though  the  fountain  still  played,  it  was 
vital  no  longer. 

The  Queen  to  the  Archbishop. 

Osborne. 
Jan.  yd,  1890. 
My  dear  Archbishop, 

The  great  amount  of  letters  and  telegrams  which  I 
have  received  and  had  to  write  during  the  last  few  days  will, 
I  hope,  be  understood  as  the  cause  of  my  not  sooner  answering 
your  kind  letter  and  thanking  you  for  it  and  for  the  volume  of 
your  Charges. 

I  deeply  regret  the  death  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  whom  I 
knew  well  in  former  days— and  who  was  a  man  of  such  knowledge 
and  power  and  of  such  use  in  his  position ;  and  I  entirely  agree 
with  you  in  the  immense  importance  of  the  Selection  for 
Bishoprics.  It  is  a  great  anxiety  and  the  men  to  be  chosen  must 
not  be  taken  with  reference  to  satisfying  one  or  the  other  Party 
in  the  Church  or  with  reference  to  any  political  party — but  for 
their  real  worth.  We  want  people  who  can  be  firm  and 
conciliating,  else  the  Church  cannot  be  maintained. 

We  want  large  broad  views — or  the  difficulties  will  become 
insurmountable. 

I  have  understood  that  you  consider  Canon  Westcott  as  the 
fittest  successor  to  Bishop  Lightfoot? 


294  ORDINATION    EXAMINATIONS  aet.  6o 

A  few  days  must  elapse  before  much  can  be  done,  as  Lord 
Salisbury,  though  much  better,  is  still  ordered  to  keep  quiet. 

In  conclusion,  pray  accept  my  best  wishes  for  a  happy  and 
bright  New  Year  to  yourself  and  your  family  and  believe  me 
always. 

Yours  truly, 

V.  R.  I. 

To  Professor   Westcott. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

1 8  Ja7i.  1890. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

Before  it  grows  too  late  I  want  to  Avrite  to  you  about 
some  points  connected  with  the  Ordination  Examinations  of  men 
not  able  to  enter  for  the  Preliminary. 

1.  I  send  you  a  very  dismal  indictment  from  Dr  Wace^,  who 
has,  as  you  see,  taken  great  pains  in  looking  over  papers.  Of 
course  it  is  not  a  new  thing.  I  fear  that  this  kind  of  man  is  not 
able  to  digest  and  afraid  to  cope  with  the  solidity  of  the  Bible 
either  as  to  bulk,  or  as  to  detail.  There  seems  to  be  no  want  of 
general  intelligence  in  the  men  in  conversation,  but  their  uncritical 
and  equally  unhistorical  minds  seem  to  want  "helps  undergirding" 
them  in  order  to  voyaging  rightly. 

In  Church  History  they  seem  to  be  no  less  unable  to  assimilate 
matter  through  which  they  have  in  a  way  eaten  onwards. 

2.  Then  again  the  men  show  the  most  wonderful  uncon- 
sciousness of  either  ignorance,  or  inability,  through  want  of 
thinking  power,  to  pronounce  opinions  on  the  most  diflEicult 
modern  or  ancient  ecclesiastical  questions,  or  questions  which 
really  are  philosophical.  They  do  not  seem  to  understand  that 
either  knowledge  or  practised  thought  are  ingredients  necessary 
to  the  formation  of  judgments.  Two  of  my  young  priests  and 
two  of  my  young  deacons  this  Advent,  had  signed  declarations 
of  regret  that  I  had  not  summoned  a  Synod  for  the  Trial  of  the 
Bishop  of  Lincoln — and  modestly  considered  that  they  were 
right  in  doing  so.  There  is  no  fault  to  find  with  their  general 
temper,  only  they  have  no  sense  of  humility,  because  they  do  not 
know  that  there  is  everything  to  be  known  or  any  difficulty  in 

^  Then  Preacher  at  Lincohi's  Inn,  and  Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Arch- 
bishop.    Now  Rector  of  St  Michael's,  Cornhill. 


iSpo  THE   CLERGY  AND   ECONOMICS  295 

drawing  conclusions.  I  have  begun  to  think  that  Hooker  and 
Butler  were  good  for  them  in  this  direction.  They  did  them 
dreadfully  badly.  But  at  any  rate  they  did  not  think  they  did  it 
well.  They  did  realise  that  there  was  a  knowing  and  a  thinking 
which  far  overreached  themselves.  It  does  not  require  much  of 
either  author  to  infuse  the  suspicion  that  it  is  so. 

3.  I  ventured  to  say  in  the  Httle  book'  (I  am  quite  delighted 
that  you  like  the  title)  that  our  clergy  are  dropping  quite  behind 
their  ordinary  Laity  in  notions  of  Industrial  Economics.  I  don't 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  views  of  Charity  entertained  by  the  Rector 

and  curates  at  A ,  and  lately  in  Bethnal  Green  by  X were 

and  are  a  corrupting  and  depressing  force  among  our  swarms  of 
poor,  and  that  the  principle  on  which  Poor  Breakfasts  are  given 
(not  the  Breakfasts  per  se)  is  working  woe  in  Southwark.  It 
seems  to  me  that  we  must  get  some  Industrial  ideas  into  the 
minds  of  the  Clergy,  or  they  will  assume  in  the  minds  of  the 
really  thoughtful  workful  laity,  the  position  of  Friars  and 
Seminarists. 

I  have  been  talking  to  H.  Sidgwick  about  it,  and  have  asked 
him  to  talk  with  you  about  our  talk,  and  to  see  whether  anything 
can  be  done.  It  seems  to  me  that  even  a  small  book,  or  the 
attendance  on  a  brief  set  of  lectures  taking  such  points  as  Arnold 
Toynbee  handled  so  well,  would  do  good,  and  that  we  might 
require  men  to  take  in  either  that  or  Hebrew — make  the  Volun- 
tariness consist  in  the  Choice. 

And  now  I  do  not  think  you  will  be  displeased,  even  if  you 
think  any  of  these  notions  too  crude  or  too  unideal,  that  I  tell 
you  the  yeasty,  and  I  will  say  troubled  and  yearning,  cares  about 
these  poor  fellows  in  whose  interests  you  are  always  thinking  and 
labouring  for  their  own  and  the  Church's  sake. 

You  know  what  persuasive  weight  belongs  to  all  you  are  kind 
enough  to  say  to  me — and  I  dare  not  delay  at  any  rate  to  put 
this  before  you. 

Yours  ever  affectionately, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

^  Probably  Christ  atid  His  Times.  He  says  on  this  subject  for  example, 
"  Knowledge  itself  would  restrain  the  clergyman  without  political  or  economic 
experience  from  intermeddling  in  questions  which  require  both,  and  from 
interposing  his  weight  of  character  where  equal  discussion  alone  can  determine 
a  fair  issue.  But  knowledge  would  show  him  where  he  could  and  ought  to 
intervene."     p.  71. 


296  BISHOPRIC   OF   BIRMINGHAM  aet.  60 

On  the  2 1st  there  was  a  great  meeting  in  Birmingham 
on  behalf  of  the  project  to  create  a  Bishopric  of  Birming- 
ham. At  this  meeting,  which  was  held  in  the  Birmingham 
Town  Hall  and  was  presided  over  by  Bishop  (Philpott)  of 
Worcester,  there  were  present  Lord  Norton,  Professor 
Westcott,  Canon  Bowlby  and  other  important  local  clergy 
and  laymen. 

The  Archbishop  was  the  principal  speaker,  and  after 
some  reminiscences  of  his  dear  friend  Bishop  Lightfoot, 
so  lately  dead,  he  went  on  to  sketch  the  kind  of 
man  required  for  the  position  of  Bishop  of  Birmingham, 
illustrating  what  he  meant  by  mentioning  the  name  of 
Bishop  Fraser. 

"You  want,"  he  said,  "to  place  among  yourselves  a 
citizen,  a  ruler,  a  citizen  with  the  interest  of  the  city,  the  life 
of  the  city,  and  the  passion  of  the  city  at  heart.  You  want 
to  place  here  a  servant  of  God,  to  whom  God  is  all  in  all. 
You  want  a  prophet — I  say  advisedly — a  prophet — a  man 

who  can  speak  plain  things  both  to  rich  and  poor and 

last   of   all he   is   to   be   a   humble   disciple   of  Jesus 

Christ " 

He  was  received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm,  and  his 
speech  was  one  of  his  most  successful.  It  was  a  matter  of 
constant  regret  to  him  that  neither  then,  nor  in  his  lifetime, 
was  its  object  ever  accomplished. 

On  the  8th  of  February  he  went,  as  was  his  custom,  to 
Winchester  to  keep  the  anniversary  of  his  son  Martin's 
death : — 

Went  with  Nellie  to  keep  our  anniversary  of  Sorrow  and  Love 
and  Hope  at  Winton.  The  9th  being  Sunday.  The  cloister 
greensward  and  grey  beauty  of  stone  more  perfect  than  ever  in 
the  sunlight — laid  our  cross  there — and  had  Cornish's  beautiful 
poem'  and  our  prayers. 

'  The  Rev.  George  James  Cornish,  the  friend  of  Keble,  died  1849,  formerly 
Vicar  of  Kenwyn  ;  he  lost  a  son  at  Winchester,  who  was  buried  in  the  College 


1890  LAMBETH    RADICAL   CLUB  297 

Writing  about  this  time  to  Professor  Westcott  on  the 
question  of  Arbitration,  he  says : — 

America  is  really  a  discouraging  experience  as  to  arbitration 
because  they  have  a  judicature  to  settle  disputes  between  states. 
But  when  their  only  serious  difficulty  came  all  was  set  aside  and 
war  was  the  only  thing  which  they  could  work. 

If  a  European  state  made  an  arbitration  alliance  with  America, 
America  could  easily  do  without  a  standing  army  of  any  sort  or 
kind,  but  the  European  state  would  have  an  army  proportioned 
to  its  supposed  dangers  in  Europe — then,  if  an  arbitration  were 
disputed,  the  two  states  would  not  be  on  equal  terms — and  so 
arbitration  ultimately  seems  to  involve  the  construction  of  some 
central  power,  supreme  and  sufficiently  strong  by  the  aid  of  all,  to 
enforce  its  decrees. 

On  the   14th  of  February  he  writes : — 

The  Bishop  of  London,  tenderest-hearted,  most  self-denying, 
most  enduring  and  patient,  most  laborious  of  men,  has  no  credit 
in  this  blind  London  for  anything,  simply  because  he  will  not  say 
or  do  one  thing  with  the  idea  that  men  should  think  well  of  him. 
He,  alas,  is  going  blind — will  not  spare  himself  one  toil  or  hour — 
and  London  will  not  see  till  he  has  lost  his  sight  and  they  have 
lost  him. 

On  Feb.  i6th  Lambeth  was  visited  by  the  Radical 
Club  :  he  writes  : — 

Yesterday  afternoon  lectured  the  "  Liberal  and  Radical  Club  " 
of  Lambeth  in  the  Chapel  upon  its  history — and  on  the  continuity, 
indestructibility,  and  comprehensiveness  of  the  Church,  as  set 
forth  in  its  list  of  Archbishops,  the  third  revival  of  the  glass,  and 
the  consecration  of  Parker,  with  other  relics.  After  I  said,  "all 
this  secular  interest  has  only  clustered  about  unearthly  interests — 
we  must  not  forget  this  is  a  church.  Shall  we  pray  together?" 
they  all  knelt  on  the  floor  and  I  prayed.  They  kept  ejaculating 
"  Amen,  amen  "  afterwards  in  all  directions — an  elderly  man  came 
up  and  said,  whispering  as  he  shook  my  hand,  "You've  saved 
20  men  this  afternoon." 

Cloister.  This  event  he  commemorated  in  a  poem  "  His  saltern,"  of  which  my 
father  was  very  fond.  See  Serfiions  and  Poetical  Remains  of  G.  J.  Cornish, 
London,  J.  and  C.   Mozley,   1850,  p.  377. 


298  DEATH   OF   HIS   SISTER  aet.  60 

On  the  22nd  his  sister  Eleanor  died.  He  writes  of 
her : — 

Alas  !  and  x^^P'-^  '''^  ®^V '  ^^  o^^  breath.  My  dear  sister  was 
released  from  her  protracted  suffering  this  morning  at  6.30  quite 
quietly.  Her  high  spirit  could  not  sustain  itself,  and  there  was  a 
long  dreary  period.  At  last  there  came  on  a  very  quiet  time  in 
which  she  was  much  asleep,  and  when  awake,  wandering.  But  at 
intervals  there  were  bright  gleams.  She  just  murmured  "  peace — 
it  is  all  peaceful.  I  am  quite  happy  now.  Tell  Edward  it  is  all 
peace." 

To  Professor  Westcott  he  adds : — 

So  what  began  last  July  has  ended  in  a  sense  of  resumed  quiet 
just  now — and  her  husband  is  such  a  noble  old  man  in  spirit  and 
lovingness  that  even  he  comes  out  in  new  lights  of  reverent  unity 
with  God's  will.  If  the  Church  at  large  could  be  to  mankind 
what  some  souls  are  to  those  about  them,  the  work  of  God  would 
soon  be  done.     But  she  has  to  represent  the  slow-rising  average. 

To  Professor   Westcott. 
{Lux  Mtmdt.) 

Lambeth  Palace. 

2  March,  1890. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

The  Bishop  of  Oxford  was  telling  me  how  strongly 
feeling  is  again  running  in  Oxford.  Gore's  Essay  seems  to  be 
lashing  up  the  whole  Liddonian  power — except,  I  suppose,  the 
strong  fragment  of  it  which  sails  the  same  boat  with  Gore.  He 
seemed  to  think  it  quite  likely  that  he  may  be  dismissed  the 
"  Puseium."  This  means  the  banding  of  a  large  force  together 
who  are  already  imbued  deeply  with  Radical  views  which  are 
"  Socialistic " — whatever  that  may,  in  this  case,  denote.  The 
same  and  a  yet  wider  body  has  been  absolutely  captived  to 
Home-Rule  by  Mr  Gladstone  in  his  late  visit.  So  that  a  very 
large  school  has  been  rather  suddenly  formed  who  may  by  the 
exploding  of  Gore  from  the  same  become  an  important  faction  in 
full  activity  and  follow  him — wherever  he  goes.  And  if  his  foes 
cut  his  anchors  he  must  be  expected  to  go. 

^  Thanks  be  to  God. 


1890  GROWTH   OF  SCEPTICISM  299 

I  am  very  diffident  of  saying  to  you  what  I  feel  about  the 
Essay  itself,  and  am  prepared  to  be  corrected.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  while  I  do  not  think  that  thought  on  this  subject  will 
ultimately  take  the  shape  he  thinks  it  may,  yet  there  is  no  harm 
but  good  in  having  it  stated  by  such  a  person  in  such  a  time. 
And  that  when  we  come  to  deal  with  very  early  history  the 
question  must  be  put  and  answered  sooner  or  later,  "  how  far  can 
a  myth  be  inspired  ?  "  "  How  far  can  Inspiration  use  a  myth  ?  " 
like  a  poem — or  a  Paean — or  a  fable.  Quite  irrespectively  of  any 
answer,  the  question  comes.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  we  (or  if 
necessary  I,  though  in  all  possible  respects  but  one,  unsuited  to 
it)  ought  to  make  in  good  time  a  firm  stand  against  any  repetition 
of  the  injurious  and  destructive  action  of  our  early  memories. 

You  remember,  may  be,  our  talks  about  the  uncertainty  of 
"  believers'  "  faith  just  now.  I  have  had  a  remarkable  instance  of 
it.  A  lady,  the  head  of  the  society  of  her  neighbourhood,  had 
formed  a  Browning  Society.  They  got  tired — and  proposed  to 
make  themselves  under  her  into  a  Bible  Reading  Society.  She 
undertook  to  do  her  best,  not  very  well  qualified  to  head  such  an 
enterprise,  but  a  fairly  well-read  churchwoman.  The  first  were 
all  apparently  quite  orthodox  churchwomen.  She  was  first  startled 
by  one  or  two  objecting  to  their  beginning  with  prayer.  She  did, 
however,  and  found  most  of  them  approved — but  the  clergyman's 
wife  not.  Rather  rashly  she  began  with  St  John — (rashly,  only  as 
it  turned  out — she  had  read  your  book  carefully  and  I  daresay 
knew  it  (in  an  unexamineable  sort  of  way),  and  felt  tolerably 
armed,  though  the  armour  was  much  too  good  for  her  previous 
erudition  and  training).  She  then  found  (with  one  exception)  all 
these  churchwomen  most  dubious  as  to  the  reality  of  the  narrative, 
clear  (I  think)  that  it  was  not  written  by  St  John,  very  uncertain 
as  to  whether  we  really  knew  anything  of  the  life  of  Christ,  and 
absolutely  convinced  against  the  Personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
She  does  not  even  yet  realise  where  she  is,  and  wants  a  book  out 
of  which  to  answer  all  their  doubts  ! 

But  I  am  persuaded  that  this  is  not  untypical.  And  all  our 
time  and  most  of  our  thought  taken  up  with  these  dreadful  lights 
and  ablutions  ! 

As  to  this  latter — I  feel  now  very  acutely  the  great  peril  we 
stand  in — the  disunion  has  become  so  very  great.  Irreconcile- 
ableness  seems  to  pervade  such  masses  of  the  people.  To-day  an 
excellent  modest  man   has    been  preaching    to    us    in   Lambeth 


300  AN   ARCHBISHOP'S    DAY  aet.  6o 

Church  about  "  Mediaeval  superstitions  happily  expelled  250  years 
being  revived,  at  the  same  time  with  philosophies  expelled  2500 
years  ago  "  (I  don't  quite  catch  the  history),  while  my  children 

come  back  from  X 's  church,  where  candles  were  lighted  at 

the  Communion  Service. 

It  is  impossible  to  forecast  the  effect  of  any  decision — and  the 
decision  itself  (to  which  my  Assessors  may  come)  is  quite  un- 
known to  me  and  undivinable  so  far. 

I  have  just  come  in  from  preaching  to  2000  people — mostly 
men,  at  the  Victoria  Theatre  !  That  looked  hopeful — very  atten- 
tive— very  reverent — and  mostly  very  poor. 

Do  pardon  so  long  a  letter — yours  need  not  detain  you  so 
long.  But  most  welcome  will  be  any  words  from  you  as  to  the 
Gore  controversy,  prospect  or  duty- — and  any  light  you  can  cast 
on  the  Judgment. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 
Pray  tell  me  how  you  are. 

On  March  4th  he  gives  an  account  of  his  work  : — 

A  good  specimen  of  this  gallingly  distracting  life.  I  have 
had  to  do  as  best  I  can  the  following  pieces  of  work,  some 
of  them  requiring  intense  and  all  of  them  considerable  labour 
and  thought — and  all  should  be  done  and  some  must,  \vith  all  the 
speed  I  can  command — and  with  much  consultation. 

Judgment  in  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  case — that  is  one. 
A  Clergy  Discipline  Bill. 

An  Ecclesiastical  Procedure  Bill— cases  other  than  ritual. 
A  Church  Patronage  Bill. 

A  share  in  the  Report  of  the  Sweating  Committee. 
Every  Wednesday  an  hour's  lecture  in  Chapel  on  the  Acts. 
To  proceed  with  Cyprian. 
To  write  a  careful  paper  on  Oaths. 
Besides  Sermons — at  St  Margaret's,  Westminster. 
,,  at  St  Pancras. 

an  Address  at  the  Oxford  House. 

„  at  the  Regent  St.  Polytechnic. 

Sermon  to  the  Medical  Association  at  Birmingham. 
Sermon  at  Coventry  and  Speech  for  the  Birmingham 

Bishopric. 
Sermon  before  University  of  Cambridge. 


1890  BISHOPRIC    OF    DURHAM  301 

Well — to-day  from  9.45  to  12.15  I  '^^'^s  occupied  by  an  unin- 
terrupted succession  of  comers.  Had  to  go  to  House  of  Lords, 
and  this  evening  i|  hour's  interview  with  the  Dean  of  Windsor  on 
Bishoprics  and  on  other  Church  matters. 

The  rest  of  the  hours  were  my  leisure  for  the  general  work. 

On  the  5th  of  March  he  writes  about  the  See  of 
Durham  : — 

The  Bishopric  of  Durham  is  to  be  offered  to  B.  F.  W.,  I  have 
written  to  him  that  no  consideration  is  to  make  him  refuse. 

Westcott's  letter  to  me  this  same  morning  on  Inspiration  was  a 
volume  of  thought  in  itself.  The  Northerners  wish  for  him  and 
no  man  living  beside  ought  to  succeed  or  can  succeed  Lightfoot. 

To  Professor   Westcott. 

Private. 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

March  ^th,  1890. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

I    have   this    moment   heard   that   the    Bishopric   of 
Durham  will  be  offered  to  you.     I  thank  God. 

It  is  of  course  of  utmost  importance  that  this  should  be  quite 
secret  until  the  fact  comes  to  you  in  the  usual  way. 

But  I  am  constrained  to  write  to  you  to  say  that  you  must  not 
upon  any  consideration  whatever  decline  the  call. 

The  position  in  Church  and  State  alike  requires  you  there — 
and  requires  Sacrifice.     The  flock  there  no  less. 

But  I  know  your  loyalty  and  obedience,  better  than  anyone, 
for  have  you  not  taught  it  me  ?  I  say  that  no  consideration  must 
interfere — deliberately  and  full  of  prayer.  I  do  thank  God  for  His 
mercy  and  lovingkindness. 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  the  14th  of  March  he  writes : — 

Last  Saturday  my  Dean  and  Chapter  made  a  conspiracy  and 
broke  burglariously  into  a  tomb  and  sacrilegiously  plundered  it. 
They  had  before  their  scholarly  eyes  the  determination  of  so 
important  a  question  as  whether  Stephen  Langton  or  Hubert  Walter 
or  nobody  was  buried  in  it.     And  having  found  the  most  beautiful 


302  "  EXTRACT   OF   PEACE  "  aet.  6o 

things  which  have  yet  been  found  in  a  tomb,  they  know  no  more 
than  they  did  and  have  put  the  things  in  their  museum. 

To  his  sons  and  brothers  in  the  most  sacred  part  of  the 
Church  the  Archbishop  commended  himself  for  ever  and  had  laid 
with  him  the  loveliest  symbols  of  his  earthly  work.  They,  break- 
ing all  honour,  reverence  and  grace,  plunder  him.  They  wonder 
people  are  bent  on  breaking  up  cathedrals  and  think  little  of  their 
worship.     The  people  see  little  fruit  of  the  Spirit  "  they  are  of." 

To  his  daughter  Margaret,  then  away  in  the  Riviera. 

Lambeth  Palace. 

19  March,  1890. 
Dearest  Margaret, 

I  wish  you  were  here — Wednesday,  you  know.  We 
are  just  out  of  Chapel,  and  all  my  golden  words  run  away  and  are 
not  caught  in  your  golden  cup'  !  But  it  isn't  for  that.  Only  I 
want  you  to  stay  away  till  you  are  quite  soaked  in  sunshine — which 
you  will  give  out  amid  Doulton's  vapours  and  Thamesine  fogs — 
like  pounded  oyster-shell. 

Canon  Whyley  was  a  dear  old  friend — much  beloved  by  Mr 
Martin — he  used  to  play  and  sing  beautifully — I  remember  an 
excellent  sermon  of  his  at  Rydal  where  we  used  to  row  lazily  about 
in  very  hot  weather  and  watch  the  herons  come  dropping  over 
the  hills  and  at  last  settling  on  the  fir-tree  tops  on  the  stony  little 
islands. 

It  is  glorious  about  Dr  Westcott^.  He  will  make  such  a 
successor.  Would  they  could  have  been  Bishops  together !  I 
always  hoped  in  the  course  of  time  and  change,  for  J.  B.  D.  to 
become  J.  B.  Ebor. 

I  AM  so  sick  of  Hebbert  v.  Purchas^,  and  Lights  and  Before 
the  Table  and  Mackonochie*  and  Phillimore  and  all !  But  if  extract 
of  Peace  can  be  distilled  from  such  dry  leaves  it  will  be  all  well. 

Ever  your  loving  father, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

^  My  sister  used  to  take  notes  of  his  addresses. 

^  He  was  my  sister's  Godfather. 

'^  The  Ritual  Lawsuit. 

*  Rev.  A.  H.  Mackonochie  of  St  Alban's,  Holbom. 


iSpo  BISHOP   TEMPLE  303 

On  the  30th  March  he  writes : — 

Preached  at  the  Polytechnic,  Regent  Street,  to  1400  or  1500 
young  men.  They  were  very  attentive,  especially  to  certain 
parts.  But  it  was  hard  to  think  they  were  not  versed  in  either 
church  or  chapel  or  both.  The  habit  of  hymn-singing  in  chorus 
has  weakened  the  sense  of  truth.  If  these  people  are  what 
they  are  said  to  be,  and  not  what  they  look  like,  they  ought  not 
to  sing  "Jesu,  Lover  of  my  soul"  with  full  voice-power. 

The  committee  were  to  all  appearance  of  a  certain  type  ;  all 
kindly  and  unchurchly  looking  people.  The  idea  is  that  it  is  a 
net  that  catches  fish  that  would  otherwise  be  uncaught — to  me  it 
looks  as  if  there  were  many  from  church  and  chapel  choirs  and 
other  good  places. 

On  the  4th  April,  Good  Friday,  he  notes : — 

Went  with  Hugh  from  Addington  to  St  Paul's  where,  on  the 
first  three  days  of  the  week,  I  had  heard  the  Bp  of  London 
preach.  To-day  he  preached  the  "  three  hours  "  to  a  congregation 
which  entirely  filled  the  space  under  the  dome  and  much  of  the 
transepts.  His  treatment  was  nobler  than  I  have  ever  heard. 
He  touched  the  physical  suffering  of  the  Lord  only  as  a  great  man 
could  who  was  himself  ready  to  bear  the  will  of  his  Father.  But 
the  mental  suffering  and  the  spiritual  power  of  Forgiveness — only 
first  given  to  those  who  were  nearest  in  causing  the  death  we 
all  cause — of  embracing  the  soul  which  turns— the  intensity  of 
Mother  Love,  the  power  of  loving  at  least  someone,  if  love  to 
God  and  man  is  cold — then  the  "thirsting"  for  the  cup  against 
which  He  had  prayed  in  his  submission — -and  much  more  were 
handled  in  a  subtle  heroic  way — and  with  a  breaking  out  of  manly 
eloquence  more  than  I  have  heard  yet.  It  was  letting  people  a 
little  see  what  he  is,  in  spite  of  his  perpetual  struggle  /xi)  hoK^iv^ — 
carried  too  far  sometimes  to  be  good  for  others.  The  vast 
concourse  were  chiefly  men.     My  Hugh  was  greatly  impressed. 

On  the  nth  April  his  dear  friend  and  coadjutor, 
Bishop  Parry,  of  Dover,  died.     He  writes,  April  15th  : — 

Went  to  Canterbury  to  the  funeral  of  the  Bp  of  Dover — the 
thousands  of  people,  the  military  lining  the  course  of  the  streets 
from  the  Cathedral  to  St  Martin's — the  closed  city — made  it  the 
most  impressive  ecclesiastical  funeral  I  should  think  in  memory. 

^  "  Not  to  seem  to  be,"  in  contrast  with  elvai,  "  to  be." 


304  DEATH    OF   BISHOP    PARRY  aet.  6o 

He  said  days  before — he  had  been  a  sailor  in  boyhood,  and 
always  had  the  spirit  of  his  father  in  all  his  ways,—"  I  know  the 
tide  will  draw  me  out  with  it,"  and  he  died  at  4  a.m.,  the  tide  at 
the  lowest,  the  day  dawning.  He  was  the  man  that  Englishmen 
most  like — generous  and  kind  and  open — not  quite  gracious 
enough  in  manner,  not  much  of  a  churchman  or  a  preacher,  not 
learned  and  somewhat  lacking  in  unction, — but  he  feared  God 
always,  and  was  a  man. 

To  the  Dean  of  Windsor. 

19  Aprils  1890. 

I  do  not  quite  know  what  to  think  of  B.  F.  W.'s  consecration 
service  as  to  my  dear  self. 

There  seems  no  instance  of  Canterbury's  having  assisted  York 
ever  in  consecrating  for  the  Northern  Province — plenty  of  course 
of  Y.  assisting  C. 

I  suppose  a  technical  doubt  might  rise  as  to  which  of  the  two 
was  the  real  consecrator — and  thence  as  to  oath.  There  must  be 
some  reason  for  the  absolute  absence  of  precedent.  Et  puis,  que 
/aire  ?  London  and  the  Assessors  all  cried  out  "  dress  in  scarlet 
train  and  sit  by  altar."  But  what  do  you  think?  I  see  there  are 
objections  to  black  gown  and  stall  which  I  proposed  but  which 
they  all  shrieked  at.     But  Fm  not  going  to  stop  away. 

You  know  they  propose  to  suspend,  i.e.  suppress  a  canonry  at 
Westminster  for  the  Fabric.  It  would  be  a  fatal  step  I  think  to 
the  Cathedrals.  I  persuaded  them  at  Gloucester  not  to  do  it — and 
they  have  gone  on  gallantly. 

All  the  Cathedrals  would  say,  "  We  could  do  with  three 
Canons  as  well  as  four,"  for  it  would  save  many  pockets — though 
not  so  at  Westminster. 

And  it  would  then  be  a  blow  and  an  effective  one  at  all 
Church  life  and  Church  work  which  is  not  merely  parochial.  I 
am  sure  of  it. 

Bradley  won't  hear  of  the  Abbey  appealing  to  the  public — I 
think  it  would  be  a  great  success.  But  I  have  wondered  whether 
some  of  us  could  not  appeal  for  a  Capital  sum  equal  to  the 
capitation  value  of  a  Canonry  to  be  presented  to  the  Chapter  by 
subscription  to  do  the  work  the  Canonry  would  pay  for  at  once — 
I  suppose  ;^25,ooo.  If  this  suppression  step  had  been  taken  some 
time  since  there  would  have  been  no  Barry  and  no  Westcott  there 
— work  which  has  certainly  brought  them  home  to  "  The  people." 


I8p0. 


1890      CONSECRATION   OF   BISHOP   WESTCOTT       305 

To  the  Dean  of  Windsor. 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 
26  April,  1890I. 
Dearest  Dean, 

I  thank  you  most  affectionately  for  your  affectionate 
and  too  kind  card.  All  that  I  have  to  look  back  upon  is  the 
goodness  of  God  and  the  kindness  of  His  Men.  And  in  this  part, 
to  be  thankful  for  nothing  more  than  for  your  constant  helpful 
friendship.  To  me  the  "  thirteen  years "  divides  itself  into  two 
very  different  epochs.  The  irksomeness  (to  me)  of  parts,  perhaps 
the  most  important,  of  the  functions  of  this  great  office  must 
weaken  the  impression  for  good  in  these  days  of  molten  wax. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

On  the  27th  he  writes  : — 

Spoke  at  Oxford  House  to  about  400  men,  which  was,  they 
said,  a  large  attendance.  They  were  attentive — and  afterwards 
they  asked  weakish  questions.  Ingram  said  they  were  mostly  the 
same  questions  Sunday  after  Sunday — often  by  the  same  men. 
One  of  them  afterwards  said  to  Ingram,  "  he  liked  it,  but  he  could 
not  see  why  the  Abp  of  C.  should  have  ^15,000  a  year.  Now, 
I'll  be  bound.  Sir"  (he  said  to  Ingram),   ^'' you  don't  get  above 

;^2000." 

Another  time  Eden  (?)  told  me  that  he  had  preached  to  them 
on  the  Being  of  God.  One  of  the  men,  who  had  always  a 
crotchet  to  say  something  against  "  Theology,"  thanked  him  pub- 
licly for  "  a  lecture  to  which  he  had  listened  with  great  satisfaction 
because  there  was  no  Theology  in  it." 

I  am  afraid  the  stronger  heads  of  the  men  have  ceased  to 
come.     If  not,  they  aren't  strong  in  heads. 

On  May   ist  the  Archbishop  wrote  : — 

Westcott  was  consecrated  in  Westminster  to  be  yet  a  greater 
blessing  than  he  has  been  to  the  Church  of  God.  He  stood 
before  the  consecrator  in  his  rochet  the  very  image  of  humility 
and  gentleness,  while  his  "I  am  so  persuaded  and  determined" 
rolled  like  a  quiet  thunder  of  water.  The  Abbey  was  full  lit  of 
heavenly  light. 

^  St  Mark's  Day,  25th  April,  was  the  day  of  his  consecration. 


3o6  SISTERHOODS  aet.  6o 

(I  could  not  take  part  in  the  consecration — no  precedent  for  a 
thousand  years ;  and  doubts  stirred,  if  I  had  done  so.  So  with 
my  two  domestic  chaplains,  I  sat  begowned  in  stall  by  Dean's 
stall.) 

In  the  evening  we  received  all  Westcott's  and  my  school-fellows 
who  could  come,  at  Lambeth — about  80,  some  had  not  seen 
each  other  for  forty  years  and  were  friends  still.  C.  B.  H.  has 
organised  all  for  me  beautifully.  Westcott  full  of  life.  Proposes 
soon  as  possible  to  take  his  seat  "to  show  that  he  is  interested" 
in  House  of  Lords. 

May  4.  B.  F.  W.  here  for  long  talk  after  Abbey.  Full  of 
heart,  and  his  eyes  as  bright  as  lights. 

On  the  3rd  May  he  writes : — 

Royal  Academy  dinner.  Salisbury  a  speech  full  of  bitterness. 
The  view  of  life  on  these  occasions  is  as  materialistic  as  can  be : 
and  it  was  John  Morley,  I  think,  who  ended  his  speech  by 
declaring  that  "man  doth  not  live  by  bread  alone" — I  suppose 
he  would  have  added — "  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  man."  Westcott  was  there  and  declared  that  to 
dine  once  at  the  Academy  had  been  a  dream  from  boyhood — 
but  he  would  not  dine  twice. 

May  19.  Dined  at  Sir  J.  Pender's  to  meet  Stanley'  the 
Explorer.  Determined  face,  not  hard,  burnt  out  of  biscuit  into  a 
greyness  like  his  hair,  sagacious  and  with  one  eye  a  little  cast 
outward  and  upward  too,  so  that  he  looks  as  if  he  were  watching 
himself  from  above.  It  was  a  distinguished  company  but  he  was 
rather  silent  and  looked  as  if  he  had  earned  and  appreciated  a 
change.  I  told  him  how  glad  I  was  he  had  said  a  strong  word 
or  two  for  which  Germans  derided  him  as  a  believer.  He  told 
Sir  J.  P.  he  was  quite  clear  on  that  point  and  "  had  evidence 
of  God's  help,  if  it  were  wanted." 

The  subject  of  Sisterhoods  and  their  Canonical  obedience 
continued  to  occupy  his  thoughts ;  he  writes  on  May 
22nd : — 

I  have  had  a  letter  from  A expressing  gratitude  on  behalf 

of  Sisterhoods  for  the  kindliness  of  the  Bishops  towards  them.    But 
saying  that  they  do  not  consider  themselves  as  Diocesan  but  as 

^  Who  had  returned  from  the  Emin  Pasha  relief  expedition. 


1890  SEAL   OF  CHURCH   HOUSE  307 

"  Church-wide."  The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  has  no  relation  to 
them,  only  that  Bishop  whom  they  elect  Visitor  and  he  only  as 
Visitor.  The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  may  license  their  Clergy,  but 
I  think  the  old  man  really  implies  that  if  he  does  not,  it  does  not 
matter. 

The  old  monastic  bodies  would  have  lasted  till  now  if  they 
had  not  been  exempt  from  Diocesan  jurisdiction  so  that  they  had 
no  friends  when  the  covetousness  arose.  But  as  regards  them- 
selves they  were  at  least  under  discipline  to  the  Pope ;  these  are 
under  no  one  but  their  chaplains,  so  that  a  presbyterian  system  has 
started  up  in  the  heart  of  episcopacy,  and  if  the  Bishops  pressed 
them  hard  there  would  be  not  much  hesitation  in  adhering  to  the 
Church  of  Rome.  I  believe  this  secret  practice  to  savour  much 
of  Rome. 

May  23. — Yesterday  I  presented  to  the  Church  House  council 
their  corporation  seal  which  they  had  commissioned  me  to  get 
engraved  at  a  cost  of  ;^7S,  to  my  own  design,  by  Wyon\ 
Westcott  had  been  very  strong  that  the  Church  should  somehow 
appear  as  Rock  unmoveable.  I  have  placed,  standing  on  a  great 
rock,  out  of  which  flow  the  four  rivers  of  Paradise  into  a  sea, 
our  Lord,  the  figure  taken  from  Fra  Angelico's  Transfiguration — 
below  on  his  right  is  St  Aidan  in  Celtic  vestments  (so  far  as  we 
can  discover  them),  his  chasuble  hooded  and  in  Celtic  tonsure — 
on  his  left  Augustine  taller,  gaunter,  and  with  his  crozier.  Both 
look  to  the  Lord  and  He  is  despatching  them  to  preach.  This  is 
to  represent  the  Apostolicity  by  both  descents  and  the  extension 
of  the  English  Church.  Westcott  not  only  thinks  that  this 
Transfiguration  is  the  one  way  in  which  the  Crucifixion  should 
be  indicated,  but  that  in  design  and  execution  it  is  the  best 
modern  seal  he  knows.  I  think  the  draperies  and  attitudes  are 
really  very  perfect,  and  by  much  conversation  I  do  believe  I 
have  prevailed  on  Wyon  to  depart  much  from  mechanicality  of 
touch. 

On  June  ist  he  writes: — 

Came  yesterday  to  Canterbury  for  the  ordination  to-day.  It 
was  very  solemn — the  music  really  religious.  The  priests  are  a 
remarkably  good  set — of  the  deacons  all  are  good  and  sincere,  I 
think,  but  intellectually  not  well  fortified.    Blore^  preached  and  in 

^  Of  Regent  Street,  firm  of  seal-engravers  to  the  Queen. 

^  Hon.  Canon,  afterwards  Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Archbishop. 


3o8       DEATH  OF  LORD  CARNARVON    aet.  6o 

the  afternoon  the  Dean.  After  afternoon  service  I  went  alone 
into  Trinity  Chapel  behind  the  High  Altar  and  read,  sitting 
sometimes  in  the  corner  and  then  against  the  Black  Prince,  and 
the  Evening  Service  and  Sermon  beginning  in  the  choir  and 
sounding  more  unearthly  because  the  singers  were  quite  invisible. 
I  had  of  course  many  strange  and  distressing  thoughts  of  my 
smallness  and  insufficiency  as  against  such  great  predecessors, 
such  men  of  affairs,  such  pillars  of  the  State,  such  friends  of  kings 
and  counsellors,  men  of  so  great  a  scale,  and  really,  take  them 
one  by  one,  men  who  had  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  their  hearts, 
and  a  view  more  or  less  right  of  what  it  was  to  do  for  men.  The 
world  was  so  much  smaller,  the  church  so  much  stronger— Why 
did  the  church  lose  so  much  ground  so  fast  ?  If  it  was  her  own 
fault,  why  ?     \\1iy  should  she  have  so  mistaken  ? 

On  June  9th  he  spoke  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
Sweating  Committee  Report ;    he  notes  : — 

My  own  speaking  is  a  matter  of  constant  regret  to  me.  Why 
did  I  not  learn  to  speak  young  ?  As  it  is,  I  am  interested  in  the 
first  half  of  my  speech,  then  I  suddenly  think  other  people  are 
bored,  and  then  ouSev  layyui'  the  rest  of  the  time. 

This  cold  audience,  which  weighs  every  man,  and  weighs  them 
by  their  words  and  their  knowledge  of  the  world  and  their  temper, 
is  the  most  formidable  audience  man  can  have. 

On  the  29th  June  he  heard  of  the  death  of  Lord 
Carnarvon,  a  man  for  whom  he  had  a  great  admiration 
and  reverence,  and  whose  friendship  he  had  gratefully- 
enjoyed.     The  Diary  says  : — 

On  Saturday  died  Lord  Carnarvon — fine  scholar,  pure  states- 
man, a  loving  son  (not  a  "friend"")  of  the  Church.  He  had 
taken  me  into  such  happy  confidences  that  I  looked  on  him  as  a 
sure  stand-by,  and  in  the  cold  quarters  of  the  House  of  Lords,  as  a 
warmth  and  breath  of  air.  That  Highclere  Sunday  one  of  the 
sweetest  days.  Those  dear  princely  eyed  and  mouthed  little  sons, 
will  they  lose  their  all  as  so  many  do  in  losing  their  father,  or  will 
the  thought  of  him  keep  feet  from  wandering  ? 

How  I  owe  both  to  the  thought  of  mine. 

^  I  am  of  no  avail. 

^  My  father  had  a  suspicion  of  a  certain  type  of  patronising  layman,  the 
soi-disant  "friend  of  the  Church." 


1890  CARDINAL   MANNING  309 

July  2,rd. — Went  with  Duke  of  Edinburgh  and  Lord  and  Lady 
Radnor  to  open  Folkestone  Hospital—a  very  long  way  for  a  very 
little  work.  Conversation  to  be  sustained  for  four  hours  in  saloon 
carriage — lunch  in  public— an  hour's  progress  in  open  carriage 
with  them  among  shouts  and  banners  and  Druids  and  Oddfellows 
and  bands — three  minutes  of  prayer  were  the  climax. 

Seems  a  wasted  day.  Yet  the  enthusiasm  was  worth  something, 
and  the  prayer — may  it  be  answered  and  then  all  will  be  well. 

My  father  goes  on  to  mention  with  much  interest  that 
the  Duke  said  he  himself  was  never  half  a  minute  late,  and 
this  gave  him  a  leisurely  feel  all  day,  while  "  five  minutes 
late  at  breakfast "  was  never  recovered. 

On  July  14th,  his  birthday,  he  went  to  a  Garden  Party 
at  Marlborough  House  : — 

At  Marlborough  House  Manning,  who  has  been  very  ill,  and 
looks  so,  congratulated  me  on  my  health.  I  said,  "  Well,  and  this 
is  my  birthday— wish  me  many  happy  returns  of  it."  "  I  do,"  he 
said,  " with  my  whole  heart.  But  how  old  are  you?"  I  told  him, 
and  he  said,  "  But  I'm  afraid  you  don't  realise  how  much  farther 
on  I  am  than  you.  To-morrow  is  my  birthday."  So  I  said,  "  What 
a  happy  touch.  This  evening  the  first  Vespers  of  your  day  are 
the  second  Vespers  of  my  birthday."  He  told  me  he  was  82.  So 
he  was  of  age  the  day  after  I  was  born.  He  said  he  was  a  sad 
Radical  and  would  pay  all  schools  out  of  rates — and  let  voluntary 
schools  have  one  manager  elected  by  ratepayers. 

On  the  17th  he  dined  with  Lord  Herschell  and  met  Mr 
and  Mrs  Gladstone  ;  he  writes  : — 

Mrs  Gladstone  is  a  miracle  more  than  her  husband  of 
vivacity — a  faithful  woman.  Her  desire  is  that  her  husband 
should  be  in  right  relations  with  all  men ;  other  women  desire 
their  husband's  advancement  that  they  may  shine  by  it.  Her 
view  has  been  before  her  through  her  whole  life  and  is  as  strong 
as  ever  in  her  wonderful  old  age. 

On  the  26th  he  writes  : — 

The  Queen  opened  the  new  Deep  Water  Docks  at  Southampton 
and  I  blessed  them  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  A  vast  luncheon 
and  vast  in  speechification.     The  dock  is  18  acres  of  water,  26 


3IO  SOUTHAMPTON    DOCKS  aet.  6i 

feet  deep  at  lowest  spring  tides.  It  was  a  pretty  sight  to  see  the 
Queen's  yacht  approach  from  the  Solent  and  "cut  the  riband" 
stretched  across  the  harbour's  mouth.  A  sailor  on  board  with  a 
boat-hook  then  threw  the  two  ends  up  into  the  air  and  the  Queen 
on  her  sea  throne  went  round  among  thousands  and  thousands  of 
subjects  and  was  slowly  sided  up  to  the  quay,  close  to  the  dais 
from  which  I  read  my  prayer.  But  this  manoeuvre  was  very  slow, 
it  was  said  because  there  were  so  many  admirals  on  board  and  on 
shore  each  giving  directions,  and  each  being  obeyed  by  different 
navigators.  It  was  a  striking  sight  to  see  the  Princes  and  officers 
all  stand  saluting  the  whole  of  the  Benediction  itself.  I  had  to 
hurry  off  with  a  special  railway  carriage  without  going  on  board — 
on  Monday  the  Queen  telegraphed  to  ask  me  if  I  was  tired. 

On  the  29th  he  went  to  preach  before  the  British 
Medical  Association  in  St  Martin's  church,  Birmingham, 
where  he  was  baptised ;  he  stayed  with  his  uncle,  Dr 
Alfred  Baker :  he  writes  of  the  church  : — 

Fancy  the  change  since  Prince  Lee  sat  in  a  scarlet  square  pew 
in  a  gallery  in  the  point  of  an  arch  on  the  south,  and  the  choir 

sang  in  a  west  gallery  and  old  F raved  at  Papists  in  the  top 

of  a  gigantic  three-decker,  sometimes  scuttling  his  papers  into  the 
bottom  of  the  pulpit,  and  going  on  preaching  as  he  ducked  down 
after  them,  with  a  wildly  waving  arm  sticking  up  above  the  velvet 
cushion. 

When  I  was  five  years  old  there  we  were  so  deep  in  a  square 
pew  that  I  fancied  the  clergyman  was  blind  and  had  to  be  told 
what  to  say  by  the  clerk  in  the  Confession  and  Lord's  Prayer — 
reversing  the  speakers — and  was  puzzled  to  adapt  my  theory  to 
the  rest  of  the  Service. 

In  August  we  went  to  Switzerland,  and  stayed  at  a 
little  hotel  above  the  Aletsch  Glacier,  opposite  the  Bel  Alp, 
called  the  Rieder  Furca.  My  father  was  ill  and  depressed, 
and  the  weather  was  horrible.  Professor  J.  R.  Seeley  of 
Cambridge  was  staying  at  the  same  hotel,  and  the  Arch- 
bishop had  much  interesting  talk  with  him  :  he  also  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Professor  Tyndall,  whom  he  "  took  to  " 
as  he  said  from  the  first  moment  of  seeing  him,  partly 


1890  SWITZERLAND  311 

owing  to  the  Professor's  wonderful  charm,  and  also  to  his 
remarkable  likeness  to  his  own  father.  He  writes  on 
August  2 1  St : — 

A  most  delightful  afternoon  on  the  glacier  with  the  Bp  of 
Gloucester  and  Bristol,  Prof  and  Mrs  Tyndall,  a  kindly  attractive 
lady,  and  Miss  Hall  and  Miss  Akers  and  others.  Tyndall 
charming,  assiduous  anxiety  for  a  supposed  stranger  to  ice  and 
endless  interesting  talk.  He  was  really  moved  at  seeing  Hutchin- 
son so  frail  and  so  disabled,  with  whom  he  had  the  fearful 
accident  he  has  described  so  well. 

He  told  me  that  thirty  years  ago  when  he  came  here  he  could 
spring  from  the  ice  of  the  Aletsch  Glacier  on  to  the  Green.  Now 
there  is  a  half  mile  nearly  of  dusty  and  stony  moraine  between — 
so  rapidly  are  glaciers  shrinking.  He  is  not  sure  of  cycles  of 
return. 

He  sleeps  ill  and  says  his  days  are  ruined  by  it.  He  said  he 
wished  to  make  Science  the  handmaid  of  her  elder  sister  Theology. 
This  was  perhaps  his  pleasant  vein.  But  the  other  evening  he 
closed  a  long  discussion  with  G.  and  B.  by  saying  "  Well — on  one 
thing  we  are  quite  agreed.  It  is  that  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth 
will  do  right." 

Why  should  a  man  be  despaired  of  who  honestly  has  reached 
Abraham's  position  and  honestly  cannot  get  further  yet  ?  I  fear 
such  a  man  may  easily  have  seen  in  Christendom  things  7nore 
disadvantageous  to  faith  than  Abraham  in  a  heathen  world. 
There  is  so  much  among  us  of  past  illumination  which  now 
dSwaroi/  ava.Kaivit^(.iv  . 

He  was  full  of  observation  of  little  things.  On  August 
27th  he  says  : — 

Coming  down  from  the  slopes  of  the  Bel  Alp  we  met  a  great  pig 
walking  faithfully  after  a  girl,  like  a  dog,  up  the  narrow  stony  path. 
He  had  socks  tied  on,  to  save  his  feet.  He  had  come  from  the 
Rieder  Alp  up  and  down  the  Furca  and  the  steep  descent  through 
the  forest  over  the  moraine  and  the  glaciers  and  with  a  most 
human  expression  of  eye  was  still  following  the  girl  close.  It 
must  have  taken  them  hours.  He  was  toiling  up  to  his  death  at 
the  Bel  Alp.     (Nellie  had  seen  Piggie  lower  down  and  mourned 

^  It  is  impossible  to  renew.     Heb.  vi.  4,  6. 


312  PROFESSOR   TYNDALL  aet.  6i 

for  his  faithfulness — we  were  much  charmed  afterwards  to  find  it 
was  not  so  tragic.  They  take  the  pig  with  them  when  they  go  from 
lower  to  higher  pastures  and  back.) 

He  visited  Professor  Tyndall  on  Sept.  3rd  : — 

Walked  with  Nellie  and  Amy  to  the  glacier,  crossed  it 
and  went  up  to  Bel  Alp.  No  sooner  had  we  lunched  than 
Tyndall  carried  us  off  to  tea.  The  most  delightful  large  cottage 
on  a  little  rocky  plateau  formed  300  feet  above  the  hotel  into 
a  wonderful  view  and  foreground — Fletscher  Horn,  Mischabel 
etc.  The  moment  we  arrived  Mrs  Tyndall  had  darted  up  to 
order  scones  for  us — and  delightful  they  were  and  tea  with  a  huge 
jug  of  cream.  He  has  a  charming  affectionate  manner  and  that 
scientific  look  of  observation  which  always  reminds  me  of  my 
father.  His  interest  in  the  people  with  their  rather  grasping  and 
jealous  ways  is  as  great  as  the  interest  in  the  names  and  ways 
of  the  place,  and  of  course  his  having  thought  out  all  the  problems 
of  the  ways  of  the  glaciers  and  hills  and  knowing  the  limitations 
of  knowledge  makes  him  excellent  company  with  that  most 
winning  manner  of  his.  They  two  came  down  with  us  and 
crossed  the  glacier  to  see  us  safe — and  we  parted  with  most 
affectionate  thoughts  of  each  other,  I  feel  sure. 

On  the  8th  he  went  off  early  with  Miss  Hutchinson  and 
my  two  brothers  for  a  walk  to  the  Eggischorn :  he  alarmed 
us  all  by  not  returning  till  eleven  o'clock  at  night :  he 
writes : — 

Amy  and  I  went  leisurely  up  Eggischorn,  and  on  the  peak 
had  a  perfect  view — cloudless  and  with  shadows  as  deep  as 
the  lights  were  bright.  The  whiteness  and  pure  majesty  of  the 
mountains  gave  one  a  passing  touch  of  the  armies  in  white  linen 
filling  heaven  and  all  the  road  down  from  it  in  infinite  mass.  On 
the  top  English  humanity  a  little  tickled  at  a  vivacious  clergyman 
who  informed  me  that  I  had  had  a  great  loss  in  Bishop  Parry,  and 
that  the  Dean  of  Canterbury  was  a  very  learned  man.  He  had 
with  him  a  boy  who  screamed  the  names  of  the  mountains  without 
a  touch  of  reverence — and  a  nice  young  round  red  fellow  besides. 
We  did  not  reach  the  Hotel  again  till  half  past  six,  having  come 
down  quietly  through  the  sunset,  and  then  it  was  nearly  dark. 
We  telegraphed  to  Rieder  F.  we  should  not  be  there  till  10.15, 


i89o          DEATH   OF   HIS   ELDEST   DAUGHTER  313 

and  as  it  now  got  quite  dark  we  took  a  man  and  lantern  to  lead 
us  over  the  stony  ups  and  downs  and  quags  and  wood  and 
meadows  which  we  never  could  have  threaded.  Stars  bright  as 
morn — a  rather  romantic  walk  for  the  young  lady  and  man  and 
me — as  we  got  near,  once  or  twice  fierce-looking  gentle  shepherds 
suddenly  shone  out  of  the  dark  and  talked  awful  patois  and 
disappeared  again  to  send  messages  on.  It  was  eleven  o'clock 
when  we  reached  our  home  and  found  all  alight  and  anxious,  for 
our  telegram  had  never  been  delivered.  We  had  been  walking 
just  twelve  hours  and  were  all  the  better  for  it  and  not  tired.  The 
only  whole  holiday  I  have  had  and  a  glorious  one. 

He  adds  about  his  holiday  reading : — 

Have  read  through  the  Odyssey  since  I  came,  all  but  a  frag- 
ment which  I  shall  finish  on  the  road.  Its  teaching  is  so  high 
that  the  occasional  sins  of  the  Gods  are  inexplicable  to  me.  The 
preservation  of  the  unity  of  the  smaller  characters  is  a  great 
argument  for  the  unity  of  the  writer.  In  separate  ballads  they 
could  scarce  grow  up  all  alike. 

Penelope  on  the  other  hand  seems  an  argument  for  divorce 
writers.  Wherever  she  comes  in  it  is  weeping,  she  cannot  sit 
still  except  weeping,  she  weeps  herself  to  sleep  at  the  end  of 
every  story  of  her.  This  would  be  natural  in  different  ballads 
in  each  of  which  she  appears  once.  But  it  is  disagreeable  in 
the  long  narrative. 

All  through  this  year  he  had,  not  only  the  unceasing 
anxiety  of  the  Lincoln  case,  but  great  sorrows.  His  oldest 
and  dearest  friend  had  died  at  the  end  of  1889,  his  sister  had 
passed  avv^ay  after  a  lingering  illness  in  the  summer  of  this 
year,  and  in  the  autumn  when  he  returned  to  Addington  a 
yet  heavier  sorrow  fell  upon  him. 

There  were  some  few  cases  of  diphtheria  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood and  in  some  way,  which  could  never  be  traced, 
my  eldest  sister  caught  it  about  the  middle  of  October. 
During  the  whole  time  of  the  illness  my  father  was  over- 
whelmed with  work  on  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  case,  for  the 
Judgment  was  to  be  delivered  at  the  end  of  October. 


314  DEATH   OF   HIS    DAUGHTER  aet.  6i 


To  the  Rev.  C.  B.  Hutchinson. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

Saturday y  Oct.  2^th,  1890. 
Dear  Friend, 

I  have  more  on  hand  than  the  minutes  suffice  for. 
Unless  you  think  it  unwise  to  come  to  the  house  (the  doctors 
say  there  is  no  fear,  but  if  you  have  for  anyone's  sake  the  sHghtest 
doubtfulness,  dori't  come) — I  would  ask  you  to  come  over  with 
the  brougham  that  brings  this — to  correct  proofs  for  me. 

Our  dearest  one  is  in  critical  condition — they  think  that  she 
is  "not  worse"  to-day. 

Pray  God  her  sweet  and  serviceable  life  may  be  granted  us. 

Your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

There  w^as  an  apparent  rally  after  he  had  written  this, 
but  on  the  morning  of  the  27th,  strongly  and  hopefully  as 
she  had  lived,  she  passed  away. 

On  the  day  after  her  death  he  wrote  to  Bishop  Eden 
of  Dover : — 

Oct.  22>th,  1890. 
My  very  dear  Friend, 

You  will  know  now  why  I  have  seemed  so  neglectful. 
The  pressure  was  so  absolute  day  and  night  because  I  was 
obliged  to  go  on  working  with  the  Judgment,  not  knowing  how 
the  illness  would  turn,  and  hoping,  hoping  always— and  yet  the 
terrible  anxiety  upon  one  too — that  I  could  not  write. 

I  wish  you  and  Mrs  Eden  had  known  her.  I  dare  not  say 
what,  not  now  but  always,  I  felt  as  to  her  life  before  God.  Her 
passing  was  as  sweet  and  serviceable  as  all  her  days.  But,  though 
she  was  the  bond  of  love  to  her  brothers  and  all,  we  are  learning 
to  say  "  O  Quanta  Qualia " — without  shrinking. 

Thank  you  for  your  kindest  dear  letter  of  the  20th'.  It  was 
indeed  a  most  blessed  day.  The  undivided  prayers  of  the  people 
for  you — and  the  presence  of  Durham  and  Rochester — and  the 

^  The  Bishop  had  been  consecrated  on  the  i8th. 


1890  A   NEARER   HOPE  315 

almost  audible  voices  of  witnesses  from  chapel  to  chapel  of  the 
great  past. 

Would  we  could  make  our  times  in  the  least  to  compare  with 
those  for  greatness  of  work. 


I  do  rejoice  m  your  joy. 


Your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 


To  Canon  C.  B.  Hutchinson. 

•zZth  Oct.  1890. 
Dearest  Friend, 

If  you  would  take  part  in  our  Dedication  of  her  to 
The  Resurrection,  at  the  Church,  to-morrow  (3  p.m.)  we  should 
all  love  it.     She  so  loved  you  and  was  so  grateful  to  you. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

He  writes,  Oct.   29th,  the  day  of  her  funeral  : — 

My  Nellie  to  the  earth  of  Addington — Nay !  The  width  of 
the  love  manifested  to  her— by  every  creature.  Sacrament  in 
the  chapel — servants — men. 

Deep  as  was  my  father's  grief,  constantly  as  he  missed 
her,  it  was  not  the  same  dark  and  almost  desperate  grief 
that  he  felt  at  my  brother's  death  :  it  was  a  "  nearer  hope," 
as  he  said  to  me  once  by  her  grave.  He  used  to  be  able 
to  talk  easily  and  lovingly  of  her  from  the  first  days  of  her 
death. 

To  Canon  Mason. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
All  Hallowe'en,  1890. 
(May  your  Name  Feast  be 
blessed  to  us  all.) 
Agapit, 

Thank  you  dearly  for  your  loving  helpful  letter.  This 
time  I  have  not  even  felt  that  initial  rebellion  which  requires 
to  be  subdued.  It  becomes  too  plain  that  He  must  work  His 
will,  and  that  it  is  All  good.     I  do  marvel  at  Him  a  little  for 


31 6  DEATH   OF   HIS   BROTHER  aet.  6i 

"leaving  me  to  serve  alone"  in  those  things  in  which  she  could 
serve  with  me  like  no  one  else.  But  she  would  not  have  mar- 
velled and  I  won't.  "I  do  wonder  what  it  will  be  like?"  was 
the  last  wonder  with  her,  and  work  is  of  course  nothing  when 
we  have  not  chosen,  but  been  called  by  Him  "  to  sit  at  His  feet 
and  hear." 

Your  loving  grateful, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

My  sister  had  been  preparing  a  little  book  of  studies 
suggested  by  her  experiences  among  the  Lambeth  poor. 
This  she  had  decided  not  to  publish  but  my  father  had  it 
privately  printed  and  prefixed  to  it  a  brief  memoir  which 
he  wrote. 

In  the  early  days  of  November  my  father's  next 
brother  died  at  Wiesbaden.  My  father  went  out  to  the 
funeral:  he  writes,  Nov.   loth: — 

Saw  Chris — looks  like  a  noble  soldier.  The  affection  of 
everybody  as  touching  as  it  is  deserved.  The  Church,  his  work, 
very  beautiful.  It  has  been  a  grand  life — great  knowledge,  great 
energy,  in  a  frame  which  at  eight  years  old  was  not  supposed 
to  be  good  for  five  years — and  has  gone  on  till  54 — and  such  a 
noble  boy  before  his  accident. 

The  Empress  and  the  Princess  Christian  both  sent  touching 
telegrams. 

To  Lady   Tavistock. 

Wiesbaden. 

\oth  Nov.  1890. 
My  dear  Lady, 

You  will  forgive  this  long  silence,  or  rather  will  not 
have  needed  to  forgive.  Beyond  the  difficulties  of  writing  there 
was  a  kind  of  selfishness  in  liking  to  have  your  letter  still  to 
answer. 

Yes — I  will  not  forget — it  is  only  a  thin  v^<^i\y]^  which  hides 
her  as  it  vTriXajStv  Him  d-n-6  t<3v  o^^aX^wv^  only.  It  is  not 
presumptuous  is  it  at  this  moment  to  say  "her" — you  know  I 

^  Cloud.  '^  Received  Him  out  of  the  sight.     Acts  i.  9. 


iSpo  DEATH   OF   HIS    BROTHER  317 

mean  among  them  ?  But  she  was  to  me  really  such  an  unobtrusive 
instance  of  a  little  saintly  spirit  using  all  its  capabilities  to  help 
others  and  to  love  us  with  the  most  daughterly  dearness.  A 
piece  of  self  seems  gone  from  this  world,  for  no  one  can  be  what 
she  was.  I  remember  her  startling  me  when  she  was  but  eight 
years  old,  when  I  said  to  her  something  about  the  poor,  by 
answering,  "I  do  think  so  much  about  the  poor — they  suffer 
so."  I  felt  then  what  I  have  realised  since  that  there  was  some- 
thing at  work  in  her  spirit  behind,  which  I  had  nothing  to  do 
with,  but  to  look  at  it.     And  I  have  seen  it  bear. 

You  will  know  that  I  am  here  for  a  stroke  no  less  sudden 
and  unexpected — (for  though  my  brother  was  very  delicate,  the 
machine  which  had  served  him  so  long  seemed  likely  to  serve 
him  still) — and  strangely  no  less  of  a  break  up  of  good  work. 
He  was  a  true  Lay  Son  of  the  Church,  devoted  to  it — both 
material  and  spiritual.  The  last  touch  of  improvements  is  wet 
on  the  wall,  and  since  he  passed  away  some  beautiful  panels  he 
had  ordered  had  come  from  Florence.  And  in  the  town  every 
kind  help  to  poor  English  and  lonely  English  has  been  his  doing 
and  his  stimulating. 

I  can  run  on  to  you— because  you  will  sympathize  with  my 
feeling  of  the  strangeness  that  two  such  losses  to  affection  should 
be,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  such  losses  to  God's  orderly  work  among 
us.  He  stops  not  only  the  demonstration  of  love,  but  the  demon- 
stration of  service. 

Your  affectionate  and  grateful, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

To  the  Rev.  F.  H.  Fisher. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
izth  Nov.  1890. 
My  dear  Fisher, 

Your  kind  letter  came  with  many  strong  sweet  memo- 
ries. No  promise  you  ever  made  me  has  been  kept  better  than 
by  God's  great  grace  your  promise  for  your  God-daughter  was — 
and  she  was  ever  mindful  that  you  had  spoken  for  her. 

How  we  shall  all  get  on  without  her  who  was  an  integral 
great  portion  of  the  life  of  each,  entering  into  and  helping  us 
all,  as  it  seemed  to  us,  essentially  in  our  several  ways,  while  to 


3i8  SORROW  AND   PEACE  aet.  6i 

the  few  and  all  who  needed  her  she  was  "  such  a  rock "  as  one 
says.  God  only  knows.  There  are  other  places  too  which  seem 
hopelessly  empty. 

Yours  ever  affectionately, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

Except  for  this  journey  to  Wiesbaden  my  father  and 
mother  stayed  quietly  at  Addington  until  the  delivery  of 
the  Lincoln  Judgment  which  had  been  necessarily  post- 
poned until  the  end  of  November.  Even  after  this  he  was 
loth  to  leave  Addington  wath  its  associations  of  sorrow  and 
peace,  but  the  rest  was  needed  and  the  change  refreshed 
his  spirit. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   LINCOLN   TRIAL. 

"  Admonitos  auteni  nos  scias  ut  Traditio  servetur^  neque  aliquid 
fiat  a  nobis  quam  quod  pro  nobis  Dominus  prior  fecit." 

S.  Cyprian. 

The  Lincoln  Judgment  was  indubitably  the  most 
important  contribution  to  Ecclesiastical  History — of  the 
History  that  can  be  written  in  chapters — in  my  father's 
life.  The  points  at  issue  seem,  it  is  true,  to  those  who  are 
outside  ecclesiastical  circles  and  not  in  connection  with  the 
electrical  circuit  of  ecclesiastical  sympathy,  to  be  almost 
pitifully  unimportant.  But  even  the  amateurish  historian 
will  recognise  that  the  fiercest  controversies  often  rage 
about  the  most  apparently  insignificant  questions.  It  is 
not  within  the  scope  or  congenial  to  the  purpose  of  this 
biography  to  follow  the  subject  into  its  ramifications,  but  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  events  connected  with  it  must  be  given. 
The  strength,  it  may  be  said,  of  the  Judgment  lay  in  this ; 
that  while  it  frankly  recognised  that  in  religious  matters 
toleration  and  unity  were  precious  beyond  any  precise 
scheme  of  ritual  observance,  yet  the  Judge  was  in  no  way 
impatient  of  minute  points,  but  rather  entered  into  them  with 
a  microscopic  eagerness,  which  betrayed  that  they  possessed 
a  remarkable  attractiveness,  antiquarian  and  aesthetic,  for  his 
mind.     But  while  he  thus  manifested  an  acquaintance  with 


320  THE   LINCOLN  JUDGMENT  1870-1888 

the  theory  and  practice  of  ritual,  which  threw  the  labori- 
ous but  temporarily  acquired  knowledge  of  acute  special 
pleaders  quite  into  the  shade,  he  made  it  no  less  evident 
that  far  from  regarding  such  points  as  of  religious  value, 
he  found  something  deeply  and  painfully  opposed  to 
religion  in  the  party  spirit  which  made  these  things  a 
battle  cry ;  that  although  as  Judge  his  concern  must  be 
the  law  of  them,  not  their  expediency,  as  overseer  of  the 
Church  of  God  he  declared  that  there  was  nothing  in  such 
matters  which  could  justify  either  side  in  endangering  the 
peace  of  the  Church,  and  dissipating  in  party  warfare  the 
forces  which  should  spread  Christ's  kingdom. 

It  may  be  briefly  premised  that  Ritual  Prosecutions 
practically  came  to  an  end  at  the  close  of  the  seventies. 
The  Funds  of  the  Church  Association  declined.  After 
carrying  on  a  somewhat  desultory  warfare  for  several 
years,  they  decided  to  institute  a  suit  against  a  Diocesan 
Bishop  for  illegal  practices.  Several  members,  especially 
the  late  Mr  Allcroft,  expressed  their  willingness  to 
subscribe,  and  the  Association  creditably  and  courage- 
ously chose  Bishop  King  of  Lincoln  to  proceed  against  as 
a  test  case.  They  were  fully  aware  that  the  Bishop's 
character  and  influence  would  deprive  them  of  the 
sympathy  of  all  but  their  most  thoroughgoing  supporters. 
They  went  to  work  in  a  most  business-like  way,  sending 
delegates  to  attend  services  at  which  the  Bishop  officiated, 
as  ordinary  worshippers,  and,  however  inconsistent  it  may 
appear,  to  attend  (not  however  as  communicants)  at  the 
celebration  of  the  Sacrament  of  Christian  Unity. 

The  original  acts  complained  of  by  the  prosecution 
took  place  in  1887  in  Lincoln  Cathedral  and  in  the  Parish 
Church  of  St  Peter-at-Gowts,  Lincoln,  on  the  4th  and  i8th 
of  Dec.  1887,  being  the  Second  and  Fourth  Sundays  in 
Advent.     On  June  2nd,  1888,  a  petition  was  presented  by 


i888  THE   ARCHBISHOP'S    COURT  321 

the  Church  Association  to  the  Archbishop,  stating  that  the 
Bishop  had  been  guilty  of  certain  ritual  acts  and  practices 
that  had  been  declared  illegal,  and  requesting  him  in  virtue 
of  his  office  to  cite  and  try  his  Suffragan. 

The  Archiepiscopal  Court,  to  which  the  Church  Asso- 
ciation had  appealed,  was  of  a  questionable  authority. 
There  had  been  but  one  case  of  its  jurisdiction  since  the 
Reformation  had  done  away  with  the  Legatine  authority 
of  the  Archbishop.  This  case  (Lucy  v.  Bishop  Watson  of 
St  David's^)  was  utterly  different  in  point  of  charges,  for 
the  Bishop  was  deprived  for  Simony,  and  as  he  was  a 
zealous  Jacobite,  the  case  was  not  without  suspicion  of 
political  bias.  Even  if  the  jurisdiction  were  established, 
the  precedents  about  the  mode  of  procedure  were  still 
thought  by  competent  advisers  to  be  doubtful. 

Under  these  circumstances  came  pressure  from  all 
sides,  advice  asked  or  unasked,  that  the  Archbishop  should 
deny  his  jurisdiction,  or  should  veto  the  case. 

Between  these  two  points  the  Archbishop  himself, 
though  not  always  his  counsellors,  distinguished  clearly. 
If  he  declined  jurisdiction  he  might,  conceivably,  be  com- 
pelled by  a  mandamus  from  the  Queen's  Bench,  to  exercise 
it.  If  he  exercised  discretionary  power  and  used  it  to  veto 
the  case,  he  was  assuming  that  he  possessed  jurisdiction, 
and  this  might  on  appeal  be  denied. 

It  seemed  to  many  impossible  to  escape  from  the 
dilemma.     The  Archbishop  on  his  own  part  was  anxious 

1  In  1699  ;  the  arguments  and  decision  as  to  the  Jurisdiction  are  reported 
by  Lord  Raymond,  vol.  i.  pp.  447,  539,  A  useful  summary  of  the  proceedings 
will  be  found  in  14  Probate  Division,  130.  For  a  readable  account  of  the 
whole  case  see  14  Howell's  State  Trials,  447.  Tenison,  then  Archbishop, 
passed  sentence  of  deprivation.  Burnet  (one  of  the  assessors)  wrote:  "I 
went  further,  and  thought  that  the  Bishop  ought  to  be  excommunicated.  He 
was  one  of  the  worst  men,  in  all  respects,  that  I  ever  knew  in  Holy  Orders  : 
passionate,  covetous  and  false  in  the  blackest  instances ;  without  any  one 
virtue  or  good  quality,  to  balance  his  many  bad  ones." 

B.  II.  21 


322  EXPERT  OPINIONS  aet.  58 

neither  to  deny  jurisdiction  (seeing  it  was  a  purely  spiritual 
court)  if  he  possessed  it ;  nor  to  assume  it  if  he  did  not 
possess  it ;  nor,  if  it  was  affirmed  that  he  had  jurisdiction, 
did  he  wish  to  deny  his  possession  of  a  discretionary  power  ; 
though  he  was  far  from  assured  that  the  best  use  of  dis- 
cretionary power  would  be  its  only  apparent  exercise,  that 
is,  in  vetoing  the  case. 

While  he  was  anxious  to  preserve  these  prerogatives 
and  liberties  of  the  Church,  many  who  were  concerned  to 
preserve  a  more  apparent  if  smaller  liberty, — a  liberty  of 
Church  ceremonial — pressed  from  many  points  of  view  and 
for  many  reasons  that  he  should  in  some  way  stop  the 
case.  Few  were  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  Archbishop 
throughout  this  time.  Bishop  Lightfoot  and  Dr  Westcott 
were  in  accord  with  him  on  the  main  issues ;  Dean 
Davidson  was  in  this  matter,  as  in  so  many,  his  intimate 
friend  and  counsellor.  Sir  James  Parker  Deane,  his  Vicar- 
General,  was  his  chief  legal  adviser ;  Lord  Selborne  and 
later  Sir  Richard  Webster  were  continually  ready  with 
help  and  counsel  as  often  as  he  asked  it. 

Lord  Selborne  now  urged  that  the  Archbishop  was 
hardly  bound,  on  a  contentious  precedent  which  would 
give  little  light  as  to  mode  of  procedure,  and  on  the  ground 
of  frivolous  charges,  to  assert  his  jurisdiction  against  one  of 
his  provincial  Bishops.  Mr  Gladstone  urged  that  merely 
as  the  inculpated  party  the  Bishop  had  a  right  to  every 
point  that  could  be  given  in  his  favour, — that  the  discre- 
tionary power  was  one  such  point.  Another  high  political 
authority  declared  that  no  court  would  compel  the  Arch- 
bishop to  hear  the  case,  and  even  if  it  did  it  was  better  to 
hear  it  under  compulsion  than  spontaneously.  A  great 
authority  in  the  Church  argued  that  the  whole  precedent 
being  doubtful,  the  issue  was  uncertain  ;  that  the  Arch- 
bishop might  find  himself,  if  not  now,  at  a  later  stage,  in 


1888  CANON   LIDDON'S   OPINION  323 

collision  with  the  secular  Courts  ;  or  might  be  compelled 
to  put  the  Bishop  into  a  position  of  which  the  only  issue 
was  resignation,  and  that  the  peace  of  the  Church  was  to 
be  considered  above  strict  legality.  Dean  Church  of 
St  Paul's  called  the  authority  of  the  court  "altogether 
nebulous."  The  Archbishop's  own  friendship  and  ad- 
miration for  the  Bishop  cannot  naturally  be  reckoned  as 
part  of  the  pressure,  but  must  have  greatly  increased  the 
painfulness  of  the  difficulty  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  how 
threatening  was  the  attitude  of  certain  parties  in  the 
Church  may  be  seen  from  the  following  letter  of  Canon 
Liddon  to  Bishop  Lightfoot: — 

Christ  Church,  Oxford. 
June  2i,th,  1888. 

...The  Archbishop  is  presumably  approached,  qua  Arch- 
bishop, and  presumably  as  having  a  large  discretionary  jurisdiction, 
not  necessarily  controlled  by  recent  legal  decisions.  It  is  most 
earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  he  may  exercise  this  by  dismissing  the 
charges  as  "frivolous."  That  such  a  person  as  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln  should  be  exposed  to  the  vexation  of  legal  proceedings  is 
a  serious  misfortune  to  the  Church — much  more  serious  than  to 
the  Bishop  himself,  who  would  probably  regard  it  simply  as  an 
opportunity  for  growth  in  Christian  graces.  But,  as  a  consequence 
of  his  rare  and  rich  gift  of  spiritual  sympathy,  the  number  of 
people  in  all  classes  of  society  who  look  up  to  him  with  a  strong 
personal  respect  and  affection,  is  probably  quite  unrivalled  in  the 
case  of  any  other  prominent  churchman  of  the  same  type,  and 
the  mere  apprehension  of  his  being  attacked  is  already  creating 
widespread  disquietude.  Anything  like  a  condemnation  would  be 
followed  by  consequences  which  I  do  not  venture  to  anticipate. 

I  am  writing  to  ask  you  if  you  could  appeal  to  the  Archbishop 
to  decline  to  entertain  the  charges  on  the  ground  that  to  do  so  at 
all  would  be  in  a  very  high  degree  prejudicial  to  the  well-being 
and  peace  of  the  Church 

The  reply  is  so  characteristic  of  Bishop  Lightfoot,  so 
full  of  the  spirit  of  the  great  and  generous  trust  existing 
between  him  and  my  father,  that  it  cannot  be  omitted. 


324  BISHOP   LIGHTFOOT'S   OPINION  aet.  58 

Auckland  Castle, 
Bishop  Auckland. 
My  dear  Liddon, 

I  have  not  had  any  conversation  with  the  Archbishop 
on  the  subject,  but  I  hope  to  see  him  in  a  few  days.  I  cannot 
doubt,  however,  that  he  sees  the  aspect  of  the  question  which  you 
put  forward  as  strongly  as  you  or  I  do — probably  more  strongly, 
as  the  responsibilities  of  his  position  are  greater ;  and  whatever 
line  he  may  feel  it  his  duty  to  take,  the  decision  will  not  be  made 
without  giving  due  weight  to  those  considerations. 

At  the  same  time  I  think  that  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  intimate 
friends  ought  to  represent  strongly  to  him  that  this  power  of 
spiritual  sympathy  which  draws  men  round  him  involves  great 
public  responsibilities,  and  that  it  would  be  perilous  to  the  Church 
if  men  in  his  position  came  to  view  questions  of  this  kind  from  a 
merely  personal  point  of  view,  as  a  moral  discipline  and  training 
for  themselves. . . . 

Yours  affectionately, 

J.  B.  Dunelm. 

The  position  was  doubly  serious  from  the  fact  that  if 
the  jurisdiction  was  affirmed  and  exercised,  the  dilemma 
already  indicated  would  only  expand  into  others.  Did  the 
Archbishop  affirm  the  judgments  of  the  Privy  Council? — 
the  attitude  of  the  High  Church  party  threatened  disrup- 
tion. Did  he  go  against  them  i* — appeal  was  inevitable. 
If  his  judgment  were  reversed,  he  himself  would  be  in 
collision  with  the  secular  Courts  ;  and  disruption  threatened 
from  another  side. 

On  June  8th,  1888,  the  Archbishop  wrote  in  his  Diary: — 

Lord  Selborne  came  kindly  to  Lambeth  this  busy  day,  that 
I  might  consult  him  privately  about  Bp  of  Lincoln's  case.  He 
says  this  will  give  him  a  good  excuse  for  declining  to  sit  on 
Judicial  Committee  if  I  am  appealed  against.  Says  the  two 
Societies,  English  Church  Union  and  Church  Association,  are  "  set 
on  the  destruction  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  perhaps  they 
will  succeed."  Well,  we  must  stop  them.  Three  of  the  articles 
against  Bishop  of  Lincoln  he  thinks  serious — the  rest  shameful  and 


i888  LORD   SELBORNE'S   ADVICE  325 

frivolous.  The  three  are  Lighted  Candles  when  there  is  no  need 
of  them — such  a  posture  as  to  hide  the  Manual  Acts — and  the 
ceremonial  mixing  of  Water  and  Wine.  The  decisions  of  the 
Courts  on  these  must  stand,  he  thinks,  but  not  so  Penzance's 
decision  against  using  mixed  cup  at  all.  He  sees  the  advantage  of 
a  Court  so  purely  spiritual  as  the  Archbishop  with  five  suffragans 
(as  in  Watson's  case),  thinking  that  the  high  churchmen  could  never 
appeal  against  such  a  Court.     [But  (Sunday,  June  10)  the  Bp  of 

A declares  that  even  though  he  might  appeal  from  this  Court 

on  the  ground  that  it  was  relying  on  judgments  of  secular  Courts, 
he  should  feel  no  difficulty  in  appealing  to  those  identical  secular 
Courts  on  the  mere  ground  of  his  using  every  effort  within  his 
reach  to  avoid  "an  unjust  sentence."  This  is  strangely  warped, 
yet  I  am  sure  the  majority  of  good  high  churchmen  would  be 
with  him,  and  this  is  worse  than  any  prosecution.  The  old  times 
were  straighter.]  He  advises  me  to  go  strictly  by  opinion  of 
Sir  James  Deane,  and  if  I  doubt  the  jurisdiction  of  myself,  then 
to  let  Queen's  Bench  know  that  I  shall  not  exercise  it  without 
a  mandamus. 

On  the  i6th  of  June,  1888,  he  wrote  in  his  Diary  : — 

The  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  point  apparently  is  that  he  extends 
liberty  by  breaking  the  law — very  sad  !  I  wish  he  would  lay  to 
heart,  holy  man  that  he  is,  what  the  Prayer  Book  says  "of 
ceremonies." 

The  Archbishop  then  proceeds  to  note  down  a  series 
of  points  which  he  thought  that  those  who  sympathised 
with  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  would  do  well  to  consider : — 

1.  That  our  Church  of  England  was  free  to  make  her  own 
orders  as  to  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  that  she  had  made  them  ; 
that  they  commanded  our  obedience  and  were  not  to  be  altered 
into  conformity  with  the  usages  of  another  Church ;  that  her 
dignity  and  our  loyalty  were  engaged ;  that  we  are  free  to  use 
other  means,  argument,  preaching  and  writing,  to  get  the  law 
altered;  that  this  freedom  was  especially  English,  but  liberty  to 
break  the  law  was  not  real  liberty,  nor  an  English  habit. 

2.  That  obedience  did  bring  with  it  distinct  spiritual  blessings, 
which  were  forfeited  by  disobedience. 

3.  That  (the  idea  of  obtaining  liberty  by  disobedience)  was 


326  NEUTRALITY  aet.  58 

bad  in  point  of  policy ;  for  that  if  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal  (which 
this  one  is  indeed)  should  decide  that  any  of  the  points,  not  only 
those  three,  were  illegal,  they  were  estopped  for  ever,  as  I 
presumed  the  Bishop  would  not  think  of  appealing  to  Privy 
Council.  It  was  better  from  the  Bishop's  own  point  of  view  for 
one  man  to  concede. 

The  Archbishop  wrote  in  his  Diary:  — 

June  22nd.     Talbot' came  to  report  a  conversation  with  Mr 

Gladstone  and  one  with  Lord ,  recorded  elsewhere.     Neither 

of  the  great  men  see  this  :  if  I  exercise  "  discretion,"  as  they  recom- 
mend, and  refuse  to  hear  the  case  against  the  Bp  of  Lincoln,  vetoing 
it,  then  follows  an  application  to  Queen's  Bench  for  a  mandamus  to 
make  me  hear  it.  It  would  probably  be  either  granted,  in  which 
case  I  should  have  to  hear  it ;  or  if  refused  would  be  refused  on 
the  ground  that  I  have  not  the  jurisdiction.  In  this  case  I 
should  be  put  in  the  position  of  having  claimed  a  jurisdiction 
I  had  no  right  to,  and  the  position  of  the  Church  would  be 
weakened  by  my  having  asserted  it  groundlessly.  "Sacerdotal 
pretension  etc."  And  a  jurisdiction  spiritual  might  be  swept 
away,  which  may  have  a  real  though  shadowy  existence.  I  sent 
him  back  to  tell  them  so. 

Saturday,  a  letter  to  say  he  had  done  so  and  they  both  were 
aware  they  had  made  an  oversight. 

Saw  Lord  Selborne  for  a  half  hour  sitting  tranquilly  in  my 
room  at  the  House  and  talking  with  such  brightness  and 
cleverness.  He  had  been  working  away  well  at  the  case  for  me, 
gave  me  a  short  memorandum  and  some  very  good  advice  on  the 
case. 

After  much  consultation,  especially  with  the  Dean  of 
Windsor,  the  Archbishop  took  a  line  which  neither  denied 
nor  assumed  jurisdiction. 

A  letter  was  sent  on  June  26th  to  the  petitioners' 
solicitors,  stating  that  the  Archbishop  had  "  failed  to  satisfy 
himself  that  he  had  jurisdiction  in  the  case,  and  was  unable 
to  proceed  to  exercise  such  jurisdiction  without  some  in- 
struction being  produced  from  a  competent  Court  that  the 

^  Now  Bishop  of  Rochester. 


i888  JURISDICTION   UNCERTAIN  327 

jurisdiction  referred  to  in  the  case  of  Lucy  v.  The  Bishop 
of  St  David's  was  apphcable." 

June  2T,rd.  Drafted  a  letter  to  Wainwright',  Solicitor  for  Prose- 
cution of  Bishop  of  Lincoln  by  Church  Association — that  I  was  not 
clear  as  to  the  jurisdiction  etc. — one  case  in  300  years  not  sufficient 
to  establish  it  clearly.  That  I  did  not  feel  called  on  to  exercise  such 
coercive  jurisdiction  merely  because  they  informed  me  that  I 
possessed  it,  but  that  they  must  be  prepared  to  show  me  that 
some  Court  of  authority  on  such  a  point  held  that  I  possessed  it. 
This  throws  the  burden  on  them — civilly  of  course. 

June  2^th.  The  Dean  of  St  Paul's  :  I  privately  explained  to 
him  the  line  which  I  thought  I  should  take  with  the  Prosecutors. 
It  fully  commended  itself  to  him.  He  pleaded  for  liberty  to 
modify  and  alter  services  in  church :  deprecating  litigation,  in 
which  I  heartily  concur :  but  I  do  not  really  follow  him  or  the 
Bp  of  Lincoln  when  they  talk  of  this  liberty  as  something 
different  from  license  for  everyone  to  do  as  they  like. 

June  25M.  Drafted  my  answer  to  the  prosecutors  into  its 
final  shape.  Lee"  will  turn  it  into  third  person  and  sign  it  from 
Solicitors  to  Solicitors.  Showed  it  Lord  Selborne  who  wished  as 
I  do  to  make  the  last  words  more  elegant,  and  to  express  that  I 
waited  for  a  competent  Court  to  declare  it  "  my  duty  "  to  exercise 
jurisdiction.  I  explained  that  while  I  am  quite  willing  to  obey 
lawful  Courts  I  do  not  feel  called  on  to  say  so,  and  that  if  I  say  it 
in  this  document  I  draw  the  whole  fire  of  the  high  church  party 
on  to  the  question  of  obedience  to  secular  Courts,  while  I  really 
want  to  help  them  to  the  plain  issue.  Are  they  sincere  in  wishing 
for  a  spiritual  jurisdiction  ?  If  so,  let  them  show  their  readiness 
to  accept  the  decisions  whatever  they  are.  Phillimore  urges 
Bishop  of  Lincoln  to  "  reserve  his  right "  to  object  to  my 
jurisdiction  !  It  is  better  that  if  the  Courts  are  going  to  object  to 
it,  they  should  do  so  before  I  exercise  it,  and  not  make  me  appear 
to  pretend  to  a  power  I  have  not,  by  setting  the  jurisdiction  aside 
after  it  is  exercised.  If  they  will  maintain  it,  let  them  say  so 
before  and  my  position  will  be  so  much  the  stronger.  The  line  I 
have  taken  will  have  these  effects — if  the  prosecutors  apply  for 
a  mandamus. 

^  Of  the  firm  of  Messrs  Wainwright  and  Baillie.     The  proctors  for  the 
Bishop  were  Messrs  Brooks,  Jenkins  and  Co. 
^  The  Archbishop's  legal  secretary. 


328  JURISDICTION   AFFIRMED  aet.  59 

Lord  Selborne  distinctly  fears  the  issue.  "  One  party  in 
church  defies  Act  of  Uniformity.  The  other  party  to  that  Act, 
the  State,  will  not  agree  to  let  them."  By  a  slight  confusion  of 
metaphor  he  says  forcibly,  "  They  drive  their  heads  against  a  wall 
which  will  fall  on  the  people  who  are  on  the  other  side  the 
wall." 

The  petitioners  appealed  to  the  Privy  Council,  and  on 
August  3rd  the  case  was  heard  before  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee. 

The  Committee  "  were  of  opinion  that  the  Archbishop  had 
jurisdiction  in  the  case.  They  were  also  of  opinion  that  the 
abstaining  by  the  Archbishop  from  entertaining  the  suit  was  a 
matter  of  appeal  to  Her  Majesty.  They  desired  to  express  ncx 
opinion  whatever  whether  the  Archbishop  had  or  had  not  a 
discretion  as  to  whether  he  would  issue  the  citation.  Accordingly, 
their  lordships  would  humbly  advise  Her  Majesty  to  remit  the 
case  to  the  Archbishop  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law." 

The  Archbishop  w^rote  in  his  Diary : — 

August  2,fd.  The  Judicial  Committee  of  Privy  Council  sat 
to-day,  five  judges  ^  with  five  episcopal  assessors  ^.  The  prose- 
cutors tried  to  treat  my  answer  about  the  Bp  of  Lincoln  as 
if  it  had  been  a  refusal  to  hear  the  case.  But  the  Lord 
Chancellor  had  made  it  clear  last  hearing  that  I  merely  desired 
to  be  instructed  by  a  competent  Court  that  I  really  possessed 
the  doubtful-looking  jurisdiction  to  which  they  appealed.  Sir 
Horace  Davey^  was  their  counsel.  Of  course  I  did  not  appear, — 
to  prove  I  had  no  jurisdiction, — nor  did  the  Bp  of  Lincoln 
appear.  He  wrote  a  letter,  which  was  not  considered  a  proper 
way  of  appearing.  All  the  judges  gave  their  opinions  succes- 
sively and  unanimously.  The  Bishops  were  then  asked  their 
opinions  as  assessors,  and  unanimously  agreed  with  the  judges*. 
"  Here  is  the  culprit,"  said  the  Lord  Chancellor  to  me  as 
I  passed  the  Woolsack  in  the  House  of  Lords  just  after,   and 

'  The  Lord  Chancellor  (Halsbury),  Lords  Hobhouse,  Herschell  and 
Macnaghten  and  Sir  Barnes  Peacock. 

^  The  Bishops  of  London,  Salisbury,  Ely,  Manchester,  and  Sodor  and 
Man. 

^  Now  Lord  Davey. 

■*  Reported  in  13  Prob.  Div.  221. 


t888  SUGGESTED   VETO  329 

he  gave  me,,  sitting  by  him,  this  account,  viz.  that  they  had  agreed 
on  four  points  : 

1.  That  the  Archbishop  had  jurisdiction  over  his  Suffragan 
Bishops ;  that  he  ought  to  exercise  it  in  person.  It  is  not  proper 
that  he  should  merely  remit  it  to  his  judge  the  Vicar-General 
propter  dignitatem  of  the  Bishops. 

2.  That  my  letter  constituted  an  "appealable  grievance,"  i.e. 
that  the  Prosecutors  were  right  in  coming  before  Privy  Council — 
were  not  bound  to  apply  to  Queen's  Bench  for  a  mandamus. 

3.  They  deliberately  expressed  no  opinion  as  to  whether  I 
was  bound  to  issue  citation  or  not — whether  I  had  a  discretion. 

4.  They  advise  Her  Majesty  to  remit  the  case  to  the 
Archbishop  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law. 

It  is  good  that  the  Church  should  have  such  and  so  spiritual 
a  jurisdiction — but  it  is  a  painful  and  terrible  case  to  try  it  upon. 

The  next  point  of  consideration  was  whether  the  dis- 
cretionary power  thus  left  open,  could  or  should  be  used  in 
vetoing  the  case. 

On  August  5th  he  wrote:  — 

Sunday,  a  long  talk  with  Dean  Church  and  Canon  Westcott 
on  the  exercise  of  the  jurisdiction  which  the  Privy  Council 
declared  to  belong  to  the  Archbishop.  Westcott  maintained  that 
the  Church  Association  has  a  case  :  that  the  aggrieved  feelings 
are  unconsidered  of  persons  conscientiously  afraid  of  Rome — and 
that  on  the  other  hand  this  is  the  first  and  unique  opportunity 
which  the  High  Church  party  have  had  of  explaining  their  case 
for  Eucharistic  vestments  and  the  rest,  as  they  conscientiously 
could  not  plead  before  the  Queen's  courts.  He  thinks  they 
probably  have  fresh  matter  to  produce,  and  that  they  would  obey 
a  "  spiritual "  decision.  The  Dean  of  St  Paul's  says  the  ritualists 
ivould  obey,  that  Liddon  has  just  told  him  that  he  and  his  friends, 
though  sorry  to  think  of  decision  going  against  themselves,  would 
certainly  obey. 

The  same  day  he  wrote  to  the  Dean  of  Windsor : — 

It  would  be  an  ugly  chapter  of  Church  History  if  it  should 
run  thus  in  the  heading — Abp  declines  to  admit  his  own 
jurisdiction — Privy  Council  decides  that  Abp's  jurisdiction  is 
undoubted — Abp  in  exercise  of  his  jurisdiction  declines  to  hear 


330  OBJECTIONS   TO  VETO  aet.  59 

the  case — Privy  Council  again  applied  to,  to  compel  Abp  to  hear 
case — Privy  Council  decides  that  Abp  should  hear  the  case — 
Abp  hears  accordingly  and  decides  in  two  particulars  against 
plaintiffs — Privy  Council  applied  to,  to  reverse  judgment  of 
Abp — Privy  Council  reverses  it. 

Postscript  by  the  Archbishop  : — 

Of  course  nothing  can  stop  this—\h&y  would  apply. 

On  Sept.  3rd  he  wrote  from  a  friend's  house  in  Scotland 
again  to  the  Dean  : — 

Webster  is  here  and  I  have  had  long  talks  with  him  about  the 
King  prosecution.  He  says  that  as  a  general  rule  it  is  most 
undesirable  for  courts  of  limited  jurisdiction  to  decline  cases 
brought  before  them.  The  cases  ought  to  be  heard  on  their 
merits,  and  not  shirked  by  any  technical  exception,  nor  ought  any 
point  fairly  included  to  be  left  undecided  by  them ;  the  shirking 
promotes  appeals,  and  when  the  cases  come  before  the  Court  of 
Appeal  (as  this  certainly  would)  it  lays  the  Judge  open  to 
animadversions  of  the  Court  which  are  always  undesirable  and  in 
ecclesiastical  cases  must  produce  a  very  bad  effect. 

Post  is  going — but  shortly  he  is  very  strong  that  this  case 
should  be  heard  on  its  merits.  Thinks  it  a  good  thing  for  the 
Church  that  such  a  Court  should  have  been  discovered. 

On  the  same  day  he  v/rites  in  his  Diary: — 

In  this  case  the  Archbishop  would  place  himself  in  a  very 
false  position  if  he  were  to  follow  up  his  alleged  doubts  in  the 
existence  of  his  own  jurisdiction  by  refusing,  after  the  Privy 
Council  has  declared  that  it  does  exist,  to  hear  the  parties.  To 
dismiss  it  on  any  technical  ground  such  as  unworthiness  of 
witnesses,  method  of  getting  up  the  case,  etc.  The  unworthiness 
of  the  witnesses,  or  the  mode  of  getting  it  up  might  very  well  come 
within  the  merits.  They  may  cast  suspicion  on  the  trustworthiness 
of  the  evidence,  but  if  the  evidence  appears  to  be  true,  it  cannot 
be  rejected  simply  on  the  ground  of  the  character  of  the  witness 
or  his  probable  unconcern  in  the  facts,  or  on  account  of  his 
prejudices,  or  of  the  motives  of  the  prosecutors.  All  these  may 
be  taken  into  account  in  weighing  the  evidence  but  not  used 
a  priori  to  refuse  to  receive  it. 

If  the  origin  of  the  Archbishop's  Court  is  independent  of  the 


1888  DECISION   TO   HEAR  THE   CASE  331 

Privy  Council,  it  may  not  be  at  all  necessary  that  the  judgment 
of  the  Privy  Council  (e.g.  on  the  question  of  lights)  should  be 
taken  into  account  as  settling  the  law. 

On  the  7th  Nov.  he  writes : — 

Two  things  to-day  which  may  be  of  moment  to  the  Church 
of  England  and  its  history.  A  long  consultation  with  Sir  James 
Deane  and  H.  W.  Lee  ending  in  the  confirmation  of  the  judgment 
that  it  is  best  to  hear  the  case  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  The 
High  Church  party  have  long  refused  to  hear  the  secular  Courts; 
now  a  spiritual  Court  of  undeniable  authority  is  invoked,  it  will 
not  do  for  the  spiritual  Court  to  refuse  to  hear.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  remarkable  that  it  should  be  invoked  by  Low  Church 
party. 

The  missive  of  the  Privy  Council  runs  that  the  Queen 
"authorises  and  commands"  me  to  hear  the  case.  I  object  to 
this ;  the  authority  exists,  and  the  P.  C.  in  their  conversation  and 
judgment  expressly  declared  that  they  could  not  and  did  not 
"order."  I  see  Lord  Chancellor  in  the  morning — also  Lee,  and 
Hassard  proposed  that  the  proceedings  should  be  described  as  "  In 
the  office  of  Vicar-General."  I  have  desired  that  it  should  be 
"  In  the  Court  of  the  Abp  of  C,"  the  only  true  description  of 
this  ancient  jurisdiction. 

On  the  8th  he  adds  :— 

Conversation  with  Lord  Chancellor  shows  me  we  made  a  mistake 
yesterday.  Chancellor  points  out  that  it  does  not  "authorise  and 
command"  me  to  hear  the  case,  but  "to  resume  the  cause  into 
my  own  hands"  and  "freely  to  proceed  therein."  This  seems 
plain  enough  now — ■"  to  resume  it  into  my  own  hands  "  is  to  go 
on  just  as  I  should  have  done,  if  I  had  never  doubted  of  my 
having  jurisdiction.  "You  doubted  of  your  jurisdiction,"  he  said, 
"  whether  you  had  it.  This  assures  you  that  you  have,  and  bids 
you  go  on  as  having  it.  It  does  not  in  the  least  suggest  how  you 
should  use  the  discretion  which  you  have." 

Lord  Chancellor  agreed  that  it  would  be  for  the  peace  of  the 
Church  to  hear  the  case — said  it  could  not  be  refused  because 
the  promoters  were  unsatisfactory.  That  when  the  High  Church 
party  had  refused  to  attend  to  temporal  Courts,  the  spiritual  Court 
could  not  well  say  "You  will  have  no  hearing  from  us" — "But 
you  are  in  for  a  long  stay  if  you  do,  and  as  it  is  certain  to  be 


332  A  SPIRITUAL  COURT  aet.  59 

appealed,  whichever  way  you  decide,  we  are  in  for  a  long  stay 
too." 

I  told  him  I  heard  Bp  of  Lincoln  intended  to  appear  himself 
and  not  by  counsel — and  he  agreed  that  this  was  ill-advised.  I 
said  we  dfd  not  want  Ridley  and  Latimer  scenes  over  again, 
bishops  hearing  bishops  personally.  "  However,"  he  said,  "  we 
know  your  Grace  will  not  go  about  with  the  bishop  as  some  of 
the  judges  did  in  those  days." 

A  few  days  afterwards  he  wrote  to  Canon  Westcott : — 

November  I'^th,  1888. 

Davidson  gathers  that  the  whole  party  are  ominously  banded 
to  frustrate  the  Lincoln  Case. 

I  have  drawn  up  a  brief  memorandum  on  why  it  is  necessary 
to  go  on — which  D.  thinks  conclusive.  I  would  send  it  to  you 
but  that  all  the  arguments  are  more  present  to  you  than  to  me. 

It  is  said  that,  if  it  go  on  at  all,  Bp  Line,  would  not  appear 
by  counsel  but  by  himself.  This  would  ruin  it.  He  would  plead 
only  for  tolerance  and  be  posed  as  the  martyr.  Whereas  what 
is  wanted  is  a  clear  lucid  statement  and  arguments  of  all  that 
is  to  be  said  on  that  side  as  to  the  practices.  Of  course  the 
Court  could  not  find  arguments  for  either  side. 

Bp  of  Sarum  is  coming  here.     He  is  bitterly  against  a  hearing. 

The  memorandum  to  which  reference  is  made  is  probably 
the  following,  which  is  dated  Nov.  10,  and  headed  "  The 
duty  of  the  Archbishop's  Court  to  entertain  the  Cause." 

1.  Defendants  in  ritual  cases  have  refused  hitherto  to  appear 
or  answer  because  the  Court  into  which  the  cause  was  introduced 
was  not  a  spiritual  Court. 

2.  In  this  instance  for  the  first  time  of  late,  a  spiritual  Court 
is  petitioned  to  hear  a  case. 

3.  The  plaintiffs  to  this  spiritual  Court  are  a  party  who  were 
least  expected  to  resort  to  it. 

4.  This  Court  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  known,  is  not 
founded  on  any  statute,  nor  have  any  later  statutes  modified  or 
meddled  with  it. 

(It  has  been  objected  to  Clergy  Discipline  Bills  that  they  dealt 
with  Clerks  alone,  leaving  Bishops  without  any  discipline  over 
themselves.    This  Court's  existence  is  the  answer  to  the  objection.) 


i888  RESULTS   OF   REJECTING   IT  333 

5.  Courts  of  "limited  jurisdiction,"  i.e.  limited  to  some  par- 
ticular class  of  cases,  are  held  bound  to  do  their  duty  by  honest 
hearings  and  complete  judgments.  If  they  discharge  this  duty, 
experience  shows  them  to  be  commonly  upheld  by  Courts  of 
Appeal.  [This  is  a  Court  which  a  Court  of  Appeal  would  not 
willingly  overthrow.]  If  Courts  of  limited  jurisdiction  decline, 
neglect  or  shirk  their  special  function,  severe  notice  is  usually 
taken  of  their  conduct  on  appeal.  This  is  a  Court  which  should 
not  expose  itself  to  such  censure. 

6.  It  is  not  held  just  to  refuse  a  hearing  to  promoters  whose 
motives  or  objects  may  be  unsatisfactory.  The  judge  has  no 
right  to  presume  this,  or  privately  investigate  beforehand,  or  listen 
to  representations  out  of  Court.  That  question  forms  one  of  the 
merits  of  the  case,  and  it  is  fully  handled  when  the  case  is  taken 
for  hearing.  The  promoters  may  be  factitious,  but  they  are 
technical  substitutes  to  meet  cases  in  which  the  parties  who  feel 
themselves  aggrieved  are  not  allowed  to  be  parties  to  the  suit. 
If  they  are  not  proper  representatives,  this  will  appear  in  the 
process. 

7.  If  this  Court  refuses  to  hear  the  case,  the  cause  will  be 
carried  forward  either  (i)  by  appeal  to  the  Privy  Council,  in  which 
case  the  fault  will  lie  wholly  with  the  Church,  of  throwing  a 
spiritual  matter  into  a  temporal  Court;  or  (2)  by  mandamus  of 
Queen's  Bench,  to  which  the  Archbishop  would  have  subjected 
himself  with  every  appearance  of  contending  (although  being  a 
Court)  on  party  lines,  by  first  doubting  of  his  jurisdiction,  and 
secondly,  when  it  was  established,  refusing  to  exercise  it. 

And  the  spiritual  Court  will  henceforth  be  ignored  as  having 
shown  itself  unwilling  even  to  hear  a  complaint. 

8.  It  has  been  always  asserted,  and  widely  accepted,  that  the 
practices  complained  of  have  sufficient  and  absolute  justification 
by  the  history,  law,  and  usage  of  the  Church,  to  convince  the  minds 
of  those  who  adopt  them  that  they  are  correct.  This  is  not  only 
an  opportunity  for  these  devout,  presumably  honest,  and  studious 
persons  to  produce  the  arguments  before  a  Court  whose  authority 
they  do  not  dispute :  the  whole  Church  looks  to  them  to  do  this, 
and  cannot  but  be  permanently  affected  by  their  conduct  in 
frankly  doing  this,  or  in  avoiding  the  issue.  (It  appears  to  be  the 
duty  of  a  Court  like  this  not  to  set  aside  the  opportunity.) 

9.  It  is  of  essential  importance,  therefore,  that  the  accused 
should  be  represented  by  very  learned  and  accurate  counsel,  who 


334  APPEAL  TO  TEMPORAL  COURTS        aet.  59 

would  follow  the  grounds  on  which  their  contention  rests  into  its 
minutiae.  A  general  plea  for  toleration  would  not  touch  the 
merits  of  the  case  and  would  virtually  leave  it  undefended.  The 
Court  could  not  supply  any  defects  of  argument  on  either  side, 
but  would  go  by  what  was  established  in  argument  before  it. 
Similarly  the  plaintiffs  may  be  expected  to  maintain  their  con- 
tentions in  detail. 

The  above  reasons  are  directed  solely  to  the  point  of  what  the 
duty  of  the  Court  is  as  to  entertaining  the  charges,  irrespectively 
of  any  protests  which  might  be  raised,  when  the  Court  is  open, 
which  if  received  would  be  impartially  heard  on  their  own 
grounds. 

With  this  is  another  memorandum  docketed  "  Note  on 
the  effect  which  would  be  produced  if  Bishop  of  Lincoln 
appealed  to  a  Court  Temporal,"  which  runs  as  follows  : — 

The  claim  of  the  so-called  Ritualistic  party  to  spiritual  influ- 
ence, to  lead  England  to  deeper  faith  in  Christ's  presence  in  the 
Church,  has  been  visibly  expressed  and  supported  by  their  deter- 
mination not  to  allow  spiritual  causes  to  be  brought  into  temporal 
Courts,  either  by  taking  others  there,  or  by  consenting  to  appear 
there. 

They  have,  since  they  adopted  this  course,  consistently  main- 
tained it — suffered  for  it — won  adherents  by  it— been  respected 
for  it  by  those  who  did  not  agree  with  them. 

They  are  now  in  a  "  Court  Christian,"  one  of  the  most  ancient, 
which  no  secular  statute  has  established  or  meddled  with  at  any 
time.  To  remove  their  cause  from  it  to  [blank]  is  to  reverse 
their  action,  and  to  disown  their  spiritual  claims  at  the  critical 
point.  It  does  not  help  their  position  if  they  act  thus  on 
the  advice  of  others  ivho  have  never  set  up  the  same  claif?is,  nor 
recognised  the  right  of  the  party  to  be  regarded  as  vindicating 
spiritual  truth  in  a  spiritual  tnanner  by  that  past  policy.  That 
those  advisers  are  spiritual  men,  or  even  Bishops,  cannot  cover 
such  a  revolt  against  their  own  characteristic  standard  of  action. 
These  advisers  would  at  any  time  in  the  past  have  recommended 
them  to  enter  the  temporal  Courts,  when  they  would  not.  Now 
that  they  want  to  have  that  advice  from  them  they  consult  them 
for  the  first  time. 

If  they  go  to  those  temporal  Courts  they  must  resign  their 


i888  FALSIFICATION   OF  POSITION  335 

claim  to  be  "  anti-erastian,"  for  it  rests  on  their  having  refused  to 
acknowledge  these  Courts.  Their  position  as  faithful  believers  in 
Christ's  spiritual  promise  to  rule  and  guide  His  Church  within 
herself  would  be  falsified  at  once.  They  would  show  that  they 
do  not  believe  in  the  permanence  of  such  gifts. 

They  would  open  their  doors  to  the  unanswerable  accusation 
that  their  past  plea  has  been  special,  and  insincere, — a  policy  to 
avoid  a  feared  difficulty. 

It  might  be  unfair  to  them  to  infer  that  the  course  is  due  to  a 
real  failure  of  confidence  in  the  historical  and  ecclesiastical  sound- 
ness of  their  liturgical  practice.  They  have  constantly  asserted 
that  it  is  sound.  They  have  the  opportunity  which  they  appealed 
for  so  long  as  they  could  not  have  it,  of  establishing  the  fact 
before  a  spiritual  Court.  If  there  were  any  unfairness  in  this 
inference  it  arises  only  from  their  apparent  willingness  to  have 
the  question  tried  by  Convocation.  But  again,  whatever  be  the 
authority  of  the  "  Court  of  Convocation,"  it  is  certain  that  it  has 
no  authority  in  such  suits. 

It  may  be  true  that,  at  least  to  a  great  extent,  they  would  be 
able  to  justify  their  practice.  But  to  evade  an  opportunity  is  to 
lose  honour. 

But  all  other  considerations  (even  the  first  surrender  of  their 
spiritual  position)  are  subordinate,  from  a  really  spiritual  point 
of  view,  to  the  clear  issue  that  they  yield  to  a  great  temptation. 
In  the  last  resort,  when  it  is  convenient,  when  the  crucial  question 
is,  "  Have  you  faith  in  your  spiritual  position  ? "  they  prefer  the 
temporal  safeguards  :  or  the  chances  of  them. 

Is  it  credible  that  they  do  not  see  the  hollowness  of  seeking 
advice  from  principles  which  are  opposite  to  their  own  ?  that  they 
do  not  foresee  the  ruin  of  their  position  by  any  paltering  about  its 
foundations  ? 

After  a  few  days  he  wrote  again  : — 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
17  Nov.  1888. 
My  dear  Westcott, 

Bishop  of  Sarum  was  here  all  morning ; — and  he  will 
at  any  rate  as  honestly  as  he  can  place  many  points  before  his 
party  quietly — and  in  action  he  will  support  me. 

He  (Sarum)  was  anxious  that  I  should  write  him  some  outline 
which  he  might  use.     But  I  said  I  could  not  do  that.     I   find 


336  THE   VETO   URGED  aet.  59 

myself  in  perpetual  risks  of  forgetting  what  a  curtailment  of  one's 
privileges  is  any  expectation  of  having  to  act  judicially.  But  I 
did  venture  to  say  that  I  thought  you  would  write  to  him  and 
put  the  matter  in  the  light  in  which  I  knew  you  viewed  it. 
The  unworthiness  of  the  accuser,  the  dignity  of  Bp  King, 
the  fact  that  the  accuser  did  not  go  first  to  Bp  King  (which 
would  have  been  of  course  singular),  tell  upon  him — and  he 
thought  that  "strength,"  an  attribute  which  he  covets  for  me, 
required  that  I  should  dismiss  the  charge — he  fancied  I  shall  be 
weak  if  I  allowed  them  to  plead — and  that  I  was  in  some  lawyer's 
hands  who  informed  me  that  I  was  obliged  to  hear  the  case.  This 
view  is  very  like  the  Church  Quarterly  and  Guardian,  who  in  the 
Jerusalem  matter,  informed  the  Church  that  I  showed  a  "want 
of  backbone  "  in  not  complying  with  their  bidding.  But  pardon 
so  much  of  the  declension  of  the  pronoun  / — it  is  only  in  expla- 
nation of  his  view.  I  do  indeed  desire  to  leave  my  own  wishes 
and  feelings  utterly  out  of  sight  and  to  do  that  which  is  purely 
honest  and  straight  and  strong  with  strength  "  Pro  Ecclesia  Dei," 
as  Whitgift  has  been  teaching  us  from  his  tomb. 

Halifax  says  that,  if  I  hear  the  case,  a  schism  is  certain — 
according   to   the  decision,   one  side  or  the  other  will   depart. 

I  think  the  Dean  of  Windsor  has  modified  his  (H 's)  private 

views — but  perhaps  not  his  utterances. 

Your  ever  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

The  jurisdiction  question  being  decided,  there  was  a 
great  desire  now,  not  only  among  the  extreme  but  also 
among  the  moderate  High  Churchmen,  that  he  should 
exercise  the  veto. 

"  All  are  agreed,"  one  of  his  chief  friends  wrote,  "  on  the 
gravity  of  the  issue — on  the  ground  that  if  the  Archbishop's 
judgment  should  agree  with  previous  Privy  Council  rulings 
there  would  be  a  great  disruption,  if  it  should  disagree  a 
long  step  would  have  been  taken  in  the  direction  of  dis- 
establishment." Many  thoughtful  Churchmen  still  urged 
that  the  Case  should  be  dismissed  as  being  not  frivolous 


i888  REASONS  ALLEGED  337 

but  vexatious, — the  technical  complainants  not  being  really 
"  aggrieved  parishioners." 

Among  such  grave  and  weighty  considerations  my 
father  must  have  amused  himself  by  drawing  up  the 
following  table  of  reasons  urged  upon  him. 

I  am  to  dismiss  the  case  because  the  complainants  are  unworthy 
of  consideration. 

I  am  to  dismiss  the  case  in  order  to  use  my  "discretion." 

I  am  to  dismiss  it  because  otherwise  my  Suffragans  will  be 
embarrassed  by  many  complaints. 

I  am  to  dismiss  it  to  save  my  reputation  as  a  strong  Arch- 
bishop. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  the  complainants  went  straight  to  my 
Court  instead  of  going  first  to  persuade  the  Bp  of  Lincoln. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  I  shall  be  thought  to  be  influenced 
by  lawyers. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  the  lawyers  all  think  I  ought  to  hear  it. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  it  is  an  indignity  to  the  Bp  of  Lincoln 
to  hear  it. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  he  himself  will  not  plead  if  accused 
by  such  persons. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  the  Bp  of  Oxford  refused  to  hear  the 
case  against  Mr  Carter  and  his  discretion  was  upheld. 

—  To  dismiss  it  because  all  the  High  Church  party  will  rally 
round  me  if  I  do. 

All  this  time  meetings  were  being  held  to  protest 
against  the  Case,  petitions  were  circulated,  public  and 
private  appeals  made,  and  a  few  weeks  before  the  Case 
came  on  an  effort  was  made  at  a  private  meeting  of  eminent 
ecclesiastics  and  laymen  representing  every  shade  of 
opinion  to  arrange  matters.     The  Archbishop  wrote : — 

To-day  (I  think)  was  the  meeting  in  Jerusalem  Chamber  to 
see  whether  leaders  of  the  two  parties  could  agree  on  any  such 
terms  as  to  get  the  prosecution  of  Bp  of  Lincoln  withdrawn. 
They  might  as  well  have  attempted  to  combine  on  one  of  the  horns 
of  the  great  he-goat.     The  English  Church  Union  and  the  Church 

Association  have  scorned  the  offer  equally  of ;  who  could  not 

see  why  they  should  not  both  embrace  his  little  scheme.    Westcott, 

B.  II.  22 


338  CITATION   ISSUED  aet.  59 

I  hear,  spoke  magnificently,  "  he  could  not  believe  that  the  sense 
of  authority  was  dead" — "and  if  not,  the  most  spiritually  con- 
stituted Court  in  the  world  was  certain  to  be  obeyed." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Dean  Church  wrote : — 

Feb.  2,fd,  1889. 

Of  course  the  difificulty  of  both  sides  is  the  strength  of  their 
tails ;  it  is  the  difficulty  of  all  parties ;  from  Corcyra  to  the 
Jacobins  and  the  Parnellites.  And  the  strength  of  the  tails  arises 
from  the  fear  and  distrust  of  each  party  towards  the  other,  which 
makes  them  unwilling  to  lose  the  support  of  the  tails,  even  when 
the  main  body  dislikes  the  violence  of  the  tails.  And  so  the  fatal 
circle  goes  on 

What  really  shelters  [such  things]  is  the  practical  impunity 
which  the  legal  prosecution  of  innocent  and  right  things  has 
brought  about.  Men  talk  defiantly  because  law  has  been  so 
strained  against  the  eastward  position,  and  vestments,  and  the 
mixed  Chalice,  that  it  has  broken  down  under  the  strain.  Law, 
strange  to  say,  in  England,  has  gradually  broken  down  under 
the  over-strain.  No  one  cares  to  observe  it,  because,  though 
half-a-dozen  men,  perhaps,  are  made  to  suffer,  no  one  feels  that  it 
has  the  authority  which  Law  ought  to  have,  as  the  real  voice  of 
either  Christ  or  nation,  and  it  is  notoriously  disregarded  far  and 
wide  by  both  sides'. 

On  Jan.  4th,  1889,  the  Bishop  was  cited  to  appear;  a 
week  before  the  day  fixed  for  the  opening  of  the  Court  the 
Archbishop  wrote : — 

Feb.  'jth.  Lincoln  Case.  Discipline.  (Discussed  whether) 
the  Vicar-General  should  sit  alone  the  first  time,  when  the  Bishop 
is  called  to  enter  an  appearance ;  he  says  the  proceedings  will  be 
purely  formal,  and  he  will  adjourn  them  if  they  are  to  be  more. 
I  think  that,  especially  as  the  Bishop's  Lawyers  express  their 
desire  that  I  should  be  there  in  person,  I  will  be,  and  have  the 
Assessors. 

(Decided)  that  I  should  sit  myself  on  the  12th  and  my  advisers 
backed  me  with  arguments.  The  High  Church  Party  desire 
now  nothing  more  than  that  the  Court  should  be  tainted  with 
"  secularism "  as  they  call  it,  and  the  sitting  of  a  lawyer  would 
charm  them.     I  summoned  the  Assessors  by  telegram  and  letter. 

^  Life  and  Letteis  of  Dean  Church,  part  ni.  p.  335. 


i889  SIR   RICHARD   WEBSTER  339 

Again  he  wrote  to  the  Dean  of  Windsor,  Feb.  1889  : — 

When  a  horse  bolts  downhill  it's  safer  to  guide  than  to  stop 
him.  Especially  by  getting  in  front  of  him.  Would  it  had  never 
begun  !     But  that  is  such  a  different  thing ! ! 

The  day  before  the  Trial  he  writes  : — 

Feb.  wth. — Went  from  Bournemouth  to  London.  Met  Webster 
at  his  request  at  the  Athenaeum.  He  was  just  as  strong  and 
hopeful  as  he  was  before.  He  was  quite  sure  that  if  a  strong 
clear  judgment  should  be  given  in  which  some  new  evidence 
or  considerations  were  introduced,  the  Privy  Council  would  not 
hold  blindly  to  former  judgments.  They  were  obliged  to  go  by 
the  merest  letter  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  as  if  they  were 
printers — but  a  Court  of  the  nature  of  this  would  be  expected 
to  go  to  Historical  and  Theological  lights  and  side  lights,  and 
to  acquaint  itself  even  with  the  mens  of  such  a  student  and 
compiler  as  Cranmer.  I  told  him  what  I  thought  I  had  dis- 
covered as  to  his  texts  and  the  banishing  of  the  mingling  itself 
from  the  Canon  of  the  Mass,  and  to  such  facts  as  those  he  said 
I  should  direct  the  attention  of  the  Court,  but  not  too  early  in 
the  hearing.  I  asked  him  also  as  to  the  side  light  of  "addens 
aquam  "  and  the  note  in  his  common-place  book  In  Eucharistia 
aqiia  miscenda  est  etc.  and  such  as  these  he  said  I  should  introduce 
in  the  judgment  itself  I  asked  him  whether  in  reality  the  lawyers 
on  the  Judicial  Committee  were  the  least  likely  to  take  such  broad 
large  views  as  he  did  in  respect  of  former  judgments,  and  the 
right  handling  for  this  Court.     He  said  he  was  sure  of  it ! 

He  entered  with  great  pleasure  into  the  opinion  which  Parlia- 
ment gave  of  the  first  book  of  Edward  VL,  when  it  enacted  the 
second.  He  is  of  course  not  versed  in  the  particular  subject, 
but  has  great  power  of  mastering  any  subject  widely. 

On  Feb.  12th  the  proceedings  in  the  Lincoln  Case  began. 
He  wrote  in  his  Diary : — 

Feb.  12.  Drove  up  to  Lambeth  at  10  to  open  the  Court  at  11. 
The  Assessors  were  there  all  but  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  who  is  at 
Java  just  now.  Hassard'  came  to  tell  us  that  the  Bishop  wished 
to  make  a  statement  before  the  Trial;  so  I  with  Vicar-General 
went  to  Guard  Room  to  meet  Bishop  of  Lincoln  with  his  Counsel 

^  Sir  John  Hassard,  K.C.B.,  Registrar  of  the  Province  of  Canterbury. 


340  BISHOP   OF   LINCOLN'S   PROTEST        aet.  59 

— Phillimore — to  ask  whether  it  was  a  Protest.  They  said  it  was 
a  statement  ending  with  a  kind  of  Protest.  I  proposed  therefore 
that  it  should  be  heard  after  Court  was  opened,  but  he  pressed 
so  strongly  that  it  might  be  before,  that  holding  it  of  no  con- 
sequence, I  allowed  it'.  There  was  no  reason  why  it  should  not 
have  been  put  in  after  opening  the  Court.  It  was  to  the  effect 
that  he  wished  to  be  tried  before  all  the  Bishops  of  the  Province, 
whether  as  Judges  or  Assessors  he  did  not  explain.  However,  I 
must  silence  all  preconceived  ideas  and  hear  the  arguments  with 
an  open  mind.  I  gave  them  a  week  at  their  request  to  extend 
their  Protest  and  appointed  a  month  hence  to  hear  it  argued. 

The  point  thus  raised  by  the  Bishop  had  already  been 
receiving  deep  attention  from  my  father.  As  has  been 
already  mentioned,  the  precedent  of  the  Watson  case  with 
regard  to  Assessors  was  not  so  clear  as  to  render  such 
consideration  unnecessary.  The  Archbishop  had  already 
been  besieged  with  suggestions,  or  demands  that  he  should 
make  the  Court  practically  a  Synod  ;  should  sit  with 
Convocation  as  jury,  or  as  assessors,  or  should  at  the 
least  have  assessors  elected  by  Convocation.  A  memor- 
andum addressed  to  Lord  Selborne,  who  had  reported  to 
him  some  such  suggestions,  gives  most  clearly  his  reasons 
against  such  a  Court. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 
Ja7i.  3o//z,  1889. 
My  dear  Lord  Selborne, 

I  am  most  grateful  to  you  for  your  great  and  thought- 
ful kindness  in  bringing  before  my  mind  several  considerations 
bearing  on  the  appointment  of  Assessors.  I  have  wished  to  see 
the  matter  from  all  sides,  and  have  had  many  talks  with  Sir  James 
Deane,  whose  opinion  I  think  you  thought  I  should  follow  about 
Assessors — keeping  as  close  as  I  could  to  the  last  precedent.  Of 
course,  relief  from  the  responsibility  of  choice  would  be  very 
inviting.     I  had  written  to  the  Bishop  of  Southwell  before  I  heard 

^  This  was  construed,  in  a  disagreeable  letter  to  the  Times,  into  a  friendly 
meeting,  and  it  was  hinted  that  the  Archbishop  had  thus  transgressed  his 
duties  as  a  Judge.  By  common  advice  this  was  left  unanswered  as  being 
beneath  notice. 


i889  A   SYNODICAL   COURT  341 

from  your  Lordship,  and  perhaps  you  will  allow  me  to  write  fully, 
with  many  apologies  to  you  for  what  I  fear  will  be  the  length  of 
this  letter. 

It  seems  to  me  very  essential,  in  order  to  have  clear  advice, 
which  is  what  I  want  from  Assessors,  that  the  different  ways  of 
looking  at  the  subject  which  exist  in  the  Church  of  England 
should  be  brought  fairly  before  the  mind  of  the  Judge  and  of  each 
Assessor — and  that  for  this  purpose  the  persons  must  be  selected. 
If  one  looks  at  the  whole  list  of  the  Bishops,  one  observes  that 
one  school  is  much  more  largely  represented  than  the  others — 
that  in  fact  it  more  than  equals  the  two  others — even  allowing  four 
as  not  assignable  to  any  of  the  three  schools.  In  other  periods 
of  our  history  the  over-balance  would  have  been  still  greater — at 
different  times  a  great  majority  of  "  Latitudinarian  "  or  "  High  " 
or  "  Low."  With  so  large  a  body  it  would  be  impossible  for  the 
Archbishop  to  have  a  fair  chance  against  a  large  majority  so 
formed.  He  might  decide  even  against  overwhelming  pressure 
and  decide  rightly,  but  it  would  be  very  difficult,  since  he  would 
not  claim  any  more  of  infallibility  than  each  of  them,  and  after- 
wards his  position  would  be  untenable :  a  new  party  would  have 
been  formed.  What  he  needs  is  calm  impartial  statement  of 
different  views  if  they  exist,  but  a  combination  would  in  the 
whole  body  be  inevitable — the  Bishops  being  human — as  they  are 
steadily  reminded. 

Sir  A.  Gordon  gives  two  reasons  for  his  recommendation  of 
a  Quasi-Synod,  (i)  The  terrors  it  would  have  for  the  Court  of 
Appeal — which  your  Lordship,  I  am  sure  rightly,  sweeps  away. 
(2)  The  more  probable  obedience  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln. 
I  am  sorry  for  this  argument.  I  cannot  believe  that  he  would 
disobey  what  even  the  most  wilful  do  not  deny  to  be  a  true  Court 
of  this  Church.  This  is,  as  your  Lordship  has  said,  an  undoubted 
advantage,  and  if  no  Court  is  obeyed  there  is  indeed  an  end. 

Your  Lordship  spoke  to  me  very  early  and  frequently  of  the 
difficulties  which  would  attend  the  nomination  of  Assessors.  But 
you  mentioned  to  me  here  the  other  class  of  difficulties  surround- 
ing a  summoning  of  the  whole  body  of  Comprovincial  Bishops 
to  Lambeth,  as  composing  virtually  a  Synod,  and  after  much 
consideration  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  (even  setting  the 
precedent  aside)  the  objections  to  the  latter  course  were  more 
serious  by  far.  I  laid  them  before  the  Vicar-General  some  days 
since,  and  he  fully  agrees  with  me. 


342       LETTER  TO  LORD  SELBORNE     aet.  59 

I  have  already  mentioned  one — the  difficulty  arising  from  the 
number  of  voices,  the  preponderance  of  well-known  opinions,  and 
the  change  of  parties  from  time  to  time.  They  naturally  would 
wish  each  point  to  be  decided  by  majorities  among  themselves, 
and  make  it  extremely  difficult  to  have  any  other  mode  of 
decision,  and  thus  they,  and  not  the  Archbishop,  would  really  be 
the  Court.  Their  views  would  be  known  out  of  doors,  and  cause 
faction  in  the  Church.  They  are  believed  to  have  prepossessions, 
and  number  always  rapidly  diminishes  the  responsibility  of  each 
several  man  for  his  vote  on  each  particular. 

There  are  twenty-three  of  them — such  a  body  would  be 
practically  unmanageable  on  such  minute  details,  and  the  pressure 
out  of  doors  would  create  a  kind  of  disunion  within  which  has  no 
existence  now. 

All  would  have  to  be  summoned ;  it  would  be  strange  indeed 
if  two  or  three  did  not  say  that  they  so  entirely  disapproved  of 
legal  proceedings  and  of  this  prosecution  in  particular,  that  they 
could  not  sit.  It  would  certainly  happen.  This  would  be  the 
beginning  of  a  new  party  or  section  of  a  party  which  would  refuse 
submission  to  this  Court  exactly  as  they  have  done  to  the  Privy 
Council,  and  I  think  that  would  be  the  final  schism. 

When  they  were  met,  they  would  be  personally  identical  with 
the  Upper  House  of  Convocation.  There  are,  of  course,  always 
absentees.  There  is  one  notable  instance  of  one  of  the  ablest  of 
our  Bishops  who  never  has  attended  Convocation  because  he 
disapproves  of  its  deliberating. 

These  same  individuals  are  not  capable  of  interpreting  the 
Prayer  Book  and  fixing  the  sense  of  Rubrics  as  the  Upper  House 
without  license  from  the  Crown :  and  the  Vicar-General  is  of 
opinion  that  if  that  body  attempted  under  some  other  name — 
of  "Jury,"  or  even  under  the  name  of  "Assessors,"  or  as  a 
"  Quasi-Synod  " — to  do  the  same  thing  (which  they  would  do  by 
voting  or  by  resolving),  it  would  go  hard  with  them  to  avoid  the 
penalties.  They  would  not  at  all  discharge  the  function  of  a 
Jury — the  facts  would  undoubtedly  be  admitted,  and  their  sole 
business  would  be  to  settle  the  sense  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer. 

By  way  of  illustration  only,  it  may  perhaps  be  worth  while  to 
consider  how  like  the  action  of  Convocation  the  action  of  this 
Quasi-Synod  would  be.  While  in  Court  the  Archbishop  alone  is 
the  Judge  or  Court,  in  Convocation  the  vote  of  the  majority  or  of 


i889  SYNODICAL   COURT  343 

the  whole  body  is  null  unless  the  Archbishop  is  on  the  side  of  the 
majority.  I  should  then  be  myself  conferring  a  new  function  on 
that  body  under  another  name,  summoning  the  whole  together  as 
individuals,  and  to  them  as  a  Quasi-Synod  appointing  work  and 
power  which  does  not  belong  to  the  Synod  itself. 

And  equally  so  if  I  called  on  them  to  elect  Assessors  to  the 
Court,  it  would  be  giving  them  a  stage  in  a  judicial  process  which 
never  has  belonged  to  them.  It  would  alter  the  character  of  the 
Assessorship  which  I  take  to  originate  in,  and  to  be  what  is  most 
useful  in  such  a  case.  The  elected  persons  would  represent  the 
school  of  Churchmanship  which  happened  to  be  strongest  at  any 
given  time  among  the  prelates. 

The  Court  is  not  compellable,  as  you  pointed  out  to  me,  to 
have  Assessors  :  but  the  Archbishop  (as  any  one  in  his  position 
would)  wishes  to  have  advice  and  assistance.  And  while  it  would 
not  comport  with  the  dignity  of  the  order  to  which  the  accused 
belongs  to  choose  any  from  outside  it,  he  ought  to  be  able  to 
have  that  help  from  such  members  of  it  as  he  believes  can  best 
and  most  fairly  assist  him. 

Burnet,  in  his  account  of  Bishop  Watson's  case,  describes  this 
exactly  (Vol.  iv.  p.  405,  Edit.  1823),  "By  the  law  and  custom 
of  this  Church,  the  Archbishop  is  the  only  judge  of  a  Bishop,  but 
upon  such  occasions  he  calls  for  the  assistance  of  some  of  the 
Bishops ;  I  was  one  of  them."  It  is  the  Archbishop  who  calls  in 
their  assistance — they  are  not  assigned  to  him.  And  they  are 
"  some  of  the  Bishops  whom  he  calls  "—not  all,  for  naturally, 
considering  their  different  merits  and  the  different  reasons  for 
which  they  are  appointed,  all  are  not  equally  suited  to  this 
particular  enquiry. 

If  fairness  of  purpose  were  ever  in  question  (I  fully  understand 
that  there  is  no  such  question  raised  at  present)  still  it  seems  that 
it  is  of  no  use  not  to  trust  the  Archbishop  to  choose  his  Assessors 
fairly.  If  he  is  the  Court  he  has  to  be  trusted  in  more  important 
particulars.  And  if  he  were  not  a  fair-minded  man  and  he  had 
Assessors  assigned  him  whom  he  did  not  like,  he  is  not  bound  by 
them.  Conscience  and  public  opinion  would  seem  to  be  still  the 
only  corrective. 

Once  more,  I  cannot  thank  you  enough  for  the  [blank]  which 
you  wished  me  to  consider,  and  for  your  comments  on  them. 

E.  C. 


344  LORD   CARNARVON'S    QUESTION  aet.  59 

Again  he  noted  on  a  letter  from  Sir  James  Parker 
Deane : — 

I  fully  agree  with  you  that  the  decision  must  be  on  the  facts 
of  the  Rubric  and  most  learnedly  and  critically  argued.  This  is 
why  I  am  most  anxious  to  have  five  not  twenty-three  people  to 
assess.  Five  will  feel  the  responsibility,  twenty-three  would  dilute 
it  and  be  unable  to  resist  the  pressure  to  combine  and  manage 
which  certain  powers  will  put  on  them.  And  this  is  why  so77ie 
(not  Lord  Selborne)  will  press  for  twenty-three. 

Feb.  \()th.  Letter  from  Lord  Carnarvon  expressing  fullest 
confidence  in  my  sense  of  duty,  but  intending  to  ask  question 
of  Government  in  House  of  Lords  whether  they  can  do  nothing 
to  stop  proceedings  against  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  Sounds  a  parlous 
flight  in  these  days  for  Government  to  meddle  with  anything 
judicial,  even  if  it  be  only  ecclesiastical.  He  feels  certain  that 
the  issue  of  the  trial  will  be  disastrous — whatever  it  be  !  I  have 
given  him  the  benefit  of  my  notes. 

Feb.  20th.  Webster  came  in  at  7  after  his  heavy  work  all  day. 
His  brightness  and  strength  a  great  example. 

He  fully  believes  the  enquiry  in  the  Lincoln  Case  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  great  opportunity  such  as  an  Archbishop 
will  not  have  again  for  centuries. 

Towards  the  end  of  February  the  Archbishop  writes  : — 

I  had  a  long  talk  in  the  Library  with  Lord  Carnarvon. 
Nothing  sweeter  or  kinder  or  graver  in  aim  than  he  is,  and  he 
often  laid  hold  of  my  hand  assuring  me  how  much  he  trusted  me 
and  would  regard  my  wishes  more  than  anyone's.  But  he  really 
desired  to  stop  this  suit,  and  did  not  seem  to  see  that  which  must 
lie  behind  the  interfering  of  Government  in  a  cause  begun — said 
there  were  precedents  !  Lincoln  he  thought  was  sure  to  be  con- 
demned, sure  not  to  obey,  and  the  other  party  sure  also  not  to 
obey.  I  told  him  he  could  not  stop  suit  without  impossible 
tyranny.  That  of  his  three  woes  I  believed  none  except  partially 
the  last.  All  he  could  get  by  his  question  in  this  case  was  to 
discredit  the  Court  (which  he  vehemently  disclaimed)  and  to 
make  world  believe  that  the  High  Church  party  was  afraid  of  enquiry 
and  had  no  real  ground  to  show,  that  Lincoln's  Counsel  were 
wasting  their  time  in  technicalities  instead  of  grappling  with  the 
substance  of  the  charges.     My  own  studies  showed  me  that  there 


i889  LORD   CARNARVON  345 

was  a  vast  mass  of  evidence  never  yet  produced  on  most  of  the 
points  which  he  had  maintained,  the  Chahce,  the  Agnus  Dei,  the 
Lights,  etc.,  and  that  Privy  Council  itself  would  welcome  the 
historical  and  theological  enquiry  into  these  points  in  a  higher 
mode  than  had  been  possible  for  them  when  the  ritualists  refuse 
to  plead :  that  great  lawyers  thought  it  a  great  opportunity :  that 
if  a  maximum  and  minimum  ritual  was  allowed  even  this  would 
be  a  gain.  He  was  quite  delightful,  promised  to  think  all  over 
well,  and  about  ten  minutes  after  we  entered  the  House  he  went 
and  gave  the  notice  [i.e.  of  his  proposed  question]  to  the  clerk  at 
the  Table'. 

After  the  sitting  I  went  to  the  Lord  Chancellor.  He  had  seen 
Lord  Carnarvon  and  told  him  that  he  must  not  expect  Lord 
Salisbury  to  promote  interference  with  a  suit  begun.  The  pre- 
cedents for  stopping  were  no  precedents  for  such  a  case  as  this, 
this  Court  was  the  most  ancient  Court  of  inherent  jurisdiction 
existing  in  England  probably ;  the  Archbishop  beyond  doubt  had 
heard  and  decided  cases  thus  long  before  the  Pope  claimed  Juris- 
diction in  England  and  arranged  that  the  person  to  whom  the  suit 
belonged  should  be  the  same  person  as  his  representative  by  the 
fiction  of  legatus  natus.  It  might  perhaps  hereafter  be  desirable 
that  the  consent  of  the  Head  of  the  Church  should  be  required 
before  litigation  could  be  taken  upon  such  matters,  but  meantime 
(though  he  did  not  hope  much  from  it  and  was  glad  I  did)  this 
suit  ought  to  go  on. 

The  Government  are  much  pressed  by  not  having  a  majority 
of  their  own  in  the  House  of  Commons — but  they  plainly  do  not 
look  on  the  Church  as  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with. 

This  has  been  a  full  day — full  of  anxieties — if  full  of  interest — 
and  my  sense  of  being  far  from  well  makes  all  go  rather  heavily. 

But  surely  God's  purposes  to  the  English  Church  are  not 
purposes  of  ill-will  to  Zion — nor  yet  towards  the  poor  man  whom 
He  has  put  here. 

On  the  next  day  he  adds  : — 

Feb.  22nd.  Lord  A —  told  me  that  he  could  not  comprehend 
Lord  Carnarvon's  tactics  at  all,  or  the  motive  of  them.     How 

^  Lord  Carnarvon  subsequently  wrote  to  express  his  great  sorrow  at 
differing  from  the  Archbishop,  and  to  say  that  he  had  "  sHghtly  altered" 
the  question  in  a  direction  which  was  rather  more  consistent  with  the  Arch- 
bishop's view. 


346  LORD   CARNARVON  aet.  59 

could  he  bring  it  to  the  House  of  Lords  except  he  considered  the 
House  a  Court  of  appeal  on  the  subject  ? — and  that  was  the  very 
thing  which  rendered  an  application  to  it  now  most  improper. 
The  lawyers,  he  said,  were  all  doubting  whether  there  was  any 
appeal  at  all  from  the  Archbishop.  Lord  Carnarvon  asked  his 
question  in  the  House  with  the  utmost  tenderness  and  indiscretion 
combined.  He  assumed  that  the  Archbishop  had  no  option  left 
him  by  the  Privy  Council  not  to  hear  the  case.  He  assumed  that 
the  Bishop  if  condemned  by  the  Court  would  disobey  it  and  incur 
suspension  and  deprivation.  He  assumed  that  if  the  other  side 
were  defeated  they  could  appeal  to  Privy  Council,  and  they  would 
appeal  to  effect  a  collision  of  Privy  Council  with  Archbishop, 
because  Privy  Council  must  support  its  former  judgments.  He 
assumed  that  the  High  Church  party  would  secede  with  an 
enormous  following  and  make  a  disruption  of  the  Church,  like 
the  great  schism  of  Scotland.  He  exhorted  Government  to  look 
at  precedents  and  see  if  they  could  not  stop  the  suit  in  process 
before  me,  to  avoid  such  overwhelming  catastrophe. 

Certainly  his  assumptions  are  unwarrantable.  As  to  disruption 
— a  Presbyterian  Church  may  split  itself  into  sections  and  each  be 
a  Kirk  as  good  as  any  other — but  an  Episcopal  Church  is  not  so 
disruptible,  but  in  our  one  Episcopal  secession  the  Bishops  refused 
to  continue  the  succession  and  the  schism. 

Lord  Salisbury  answered  gravely  and  well.  There  was  no 
hope  that  the  House  of  Lords  would  pass  a  Bill  intermeddling 
with  jurisdiction  declared  by  Privy  Council  and  actually  in  course 
of  being  exercised.  Still  less  hope  of  House  of  Commons.  It 
would  be  contrary  to  all  principles  of  jurisprudence  and  justice. 

On  the  1st  of  March  there  is  an  entry  in  the  Diary  to 
the  effect  that  he  had  heard  that  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln 

had  not  realised  that  the  acceding  to  his  protest,  if  the  Court 
determines  to  do  so,  can  have  no  effect  but  to  make  Horace 
Davey  appeal  to  Queen's  Bench  for  a  prohibition. 

The  Archbishop  adds  that  he  had  further  gathered  that 
the  Bishop  himself 

much  prefers  the  Court  as  it  is,  but  thought  he  ought  to  do  some- 
thing on  behalf  of  primitive  custom.  That  side  does  not  seem  to 
know  that  Metropolitans  and  Primates  were  introduced  because 
Synods  were  so  factious  and  unjust. 


i889  JUDGMENT   ON    PROTEST  347 

On  Saturday,  May  nth,  the  Archbishop  deHvcred 
judgment  with  reference  to  the  constitution  of  the  Court. 
It  took  an  hour  and  a  half  to  deHver,  the  Archbishop 
stating  that  this  judgment,  which  concerned  his  jurisdiction 
only,  was  his  own  judgment  and  not  to  be  looked  upon 
as  that  of  the  Episcopal  Assessors. 

As  he  himself  said  elsewhere  : — 

The  Assessors  are  appointed  to  hear  the  case  on  its  merits, 
and  not  to  determine  on  the  protest  whether  they  should  have 
been  appointed  in  larger  numbers  or  with  other  powers. 

The  Judgment  concluded  as  follows  : — 

The  Court  finds  that  from  the  most  ancient  times  of  the 
Church  the  Archiepiscopal  jurisdiction  in  the  case  of  Suffragans 
has  existed ;  that  in  the  Church  of  England  it  has  been  from  time 
to  time  continuously  exercised  in  various  forms ;  that  nothing  has 
occurred  in  the  Church  to  modify  that  jurisdiction ;  and  that, 
even  if  such  jurisdiction  could  be  used  in  Convocation  for  the 
trial  of  a  Bishop,  consistently  with  the  ancient  principle  that  in  a 
synod  bishops  could  hear  such  a  cause,  it  nevertheless  remains 
clear  that  the  Metropolitan  has  regularly  exercised  that  jurisdiction 

both  alone  and  with  Assessors There  is  no  form  of  the  exercise 

of  the  jurisdiction  in  this  country  which  has  been  more  examined 
into  and  is  better  attested  and  confirmed 

This  Court  decides  that  it  has  jurisdiction  in  the  Case  and 
therefore  overrules  the  protest  \ 

The  23rd  of  July,  1889,  was  fixed  for  hearing  the  case. 
In  the  interval  he  wrote  to  the  Dean  of  Windsor : — 

Lambeth  Palace,  S.E. 

23  /un^,  1889. 
Dearest  Dean, 

One  thing  is  evident.  They  cannot  contemplate 
going  into  the  question  really.  It  would  take  me  two  days  to 
argue  mosl  of  them  on  either  side.  It  seems  plain  to  me  that 
one    side    will    say    "  Privy   Council    is    Law "    and    the    other 

^  Reported  in  14  Prob.  Div.  88. 


348  THE   PROCEEDINGS  aet.  6o 

"Ornaments  Rubric  is  Law" — and  so  leave  it.  If  so,  God  means 
the  Established  Church  to  end  and  does  it  as  He  overthrew  the 
Persians  and  Pisistratids  each  in  their  time,     rjo-iv  aTaaOaXiya-iv  \ 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

Edw.  Cantuar. 

The  Archbishop  was  assisted  by  the  Bishops  of  London^ 
Oxford^  Rochester^  Salisbury^  and  Hereford",  the  latter 
taking  the  place  of  the  Bishop  of  Winchester^  owing  to 
the  enforced  absence  of  the  latter  from  ill-health. 

The  counsel  engaged  were,  for  the  Church  Association, 
Sir  Horace  Davey,  Q.C,  Dr  Tristram,  Q.C.  and  Mr  Danck- 
werts — for  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Sir  Walter  Phillimore^ 
Mr  Jeune,  Q.C.  and  Mr  A.  B.  Kempe. 

The  Archbishop  had  taken  the  utmost  care  that  the 
"ritual"  of  the  proceedings  should  be  dignified  and  im- 
pressive. He  had  himself  been  to  the  Library  before  the 
Case  was  opened  to  see  that  the  semi-circular  table  at 
which  the  Bishops  sat  and  which  had  been  designed  by 
him,  should  be  put  up  exactly  as  he  wished,  on  a  dais  at 
one  end  of  the  great  hall, — his  seat  in  the  middle  was  a 
little  raised  above  the  rest.  His  manner  as  a  judge 
was  singularly  impressive :  throughout  the  proceedings 
he  had  a  grasp  of  the  subject  down  to  the  minutest 
details,  which  was  fairly  astonishing.  Thus  he  frequently 
supplied  to  counsel  names  and  dates  which  had  escaped 
them,  and  pointed  out  possible  constructions  of  statements 
and  facts,  which  displayed  a  rare  legal  acumen. 

The  first  preliminary  point  taken  was  that  the  word 


^  By  their  own  presumptuous  sin. 

2  Frederick  Temple.  ^  William  Stubbs. 

*  Anthony  W.  Thorold.  *  John  Wordsworth. 

^  James  Atlay.  ^  Edward  Harold  Browne. 

*  Sir  Walter  Phillimore  was  not  a  Queen's  Counsel,  but  took  pi'ecedence 
of  Mr  Jeune,  in  virtue  of  a  patent  granted  him  in  1883. 


1889  THE   TRIAL  349 

"Minister"  in  the  rubrics  to  the  Communion  Service  did  not 
include  a  Bishop. 

The  Archbishop  wrote  in  his  Diary : — 

July  22,rd.  Trial  of  Bishop  of  Lincoln  in  Lambeth  Library. 
Bishop  of  Hereford  had  taken  the  place  of  Bishop  of  Winton. 
I  would  not  allow  Promoters  to  alter  the  Articles  by  inserting  "or 
Minister  "  after  "  officiating  as  Bishop."  If  immaterial,  there  is  no 
ground  for  the  alteration;  if  material,  they  must  not  make  the  Articles 
differ  from  the  Citation.  Phillimore  argued  wordily  that  a  Bishop 
was  not  within  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  was  not  a  "  Minister " 
according  to  the  Rubrics,  and  therefore  not  bound  by  Rubrics 
affecting  Ministers ;  that  he  was  to  direct  ritual,  if  he  so  pleased, 
of  the  churches  in  his  diocese  (though  Ministers  who  obeyed  him 
against  the  law  were  liable  to  writ),  but  was  not  himself  bound 
by  the  Rubrics  beyond  what  he  found  of  general  guidance  in 

them.     (The  Bishop  of  then  may  omit  Cross  in  Baptism, 

and  another  may  have  a  Latin  Mass.  And  all  the  orders  of 
Bishops  which  Ritualists  have  consistently  set  at  nought  ought  to 
have  been  obeyed.) 

Sir  H.  Davey  came  in  not  knowing  difference  between  ist  and 
2nd  Books  of  Edward  VI.  or  much  else  of  his  brief.  But  he 
picked  up  quickly  what  he  ought  to  say  and  said  it  incisively. 

Ju/y  2i^th.  The  Trial  continued.  Davey  improved  his  argu- 
ments a  little  and  Phillimore  worsened  his.  At  a  quarter  to  1 1 
retired  with  Vicar-General  and  Assessors  and  we  had  a  very 
difficult  conversation  until  three— when  we  went  back  and  I 
delivered  the  judgment  we  had  come  to\ 

The  judgment  on  this  point  concluded  : — 

The  Court  is  of  opinion  that  when  a  Bishop  ministers  in  any 
office  prescribed  by  the  Prayer  Book  he  is  a  Minister  bound  to 
observe  the  directions  given  to  the  Minister  in  the  Rubrics  of 
such  offices. 

The  Bishop  of  Salisbury  alone  dissented  from  this 
conclusion. 

The  Diary  continues  : — 

The  country  would  have  been  indignant  if  we  had  found 
a   Bishop   not    to  be  a   Minister — to  be   "outside  the  law,"  to 

^  Reported  in  14  Prob.  Div.  148. 


3SO  CAMBRIDGE   PROTEST  aet.  6o 

be  so  free  in  Liturgies  that  "  when  a  Bishop  comes  to  one  of  his 
own  churches,  anything  may  happen,"  which  was  PhiUimore's 
actual  phrase ;  some  new  Act  of  Parliament  would  have  put  them 
under  a  Lay  Court  with  deprivation  etc.  at  once — but  without  the 
least  regard  to  consequences.  All  are  convinced  that  a  Bishop 
must  do  a  Minister's  function  according  to  the  Rubrics  and  that 
by  law.  '  Sarum  imagines  that  because  there  are  no  penalties 
fixed  there  is  no  crime.  I  do  not  think  a  single  layman  (who  is 
not  a  fanatic  high  or  low)  cares  the  least  about  this  trial  or  this 
part  of  it — and  this  is  the  sadness  of  it.  It  makes  the  laity  think 
that  the  whole  clergy  are  wrapt  up  in  these  trivial  questions,  and 
that  if  such  is  the  condition  and  character  of  the  Church  it  is  not 
worth  saving — and  a  day  or  two  later  "my  Archiepiscopal  Blessing" 
is  petitioned  for  by  a  Society  whose  daily  collect  begins  with 
"  Blessing  God  for  marking  this  age  by  the  advance  of  His  Glory 
and  by  the  power  and  honour  of  St  Osmund."  And  this  is 
England.     Something  that  the  laity  will  care  about !  wanted  ! 

On  the   loth  of  October  he  notes : — 

The  parochial  clergy  of  Cambridge  have  started  a  protest  and 
got  it  largely  signed  by  clergy  of  Ely  Diocese,  and  are  agitating 
all  over  England — or  southern  province — to  get  it  signed,  against 
"the  Archbishop's  claim"! — treating  me  as  having  made  a  personal 
claim  to  try  Bishop  of  Lincoln  by  myself  instead  of  by  a  Synod. 

That  a  certain  Court  was  appealed  to — that  the  question  was 
raised  before  it  of  its  jurisdiction,  and  had  been  previously  raised 
before  Privy  Council; — that  Privy  Council  had  decided  that  Court 
to  be  a  valid  Court — that  the  Episcopal  Assessors  were  clear  that 
the  Court  was  valid — this  the  Protest  which  styles  itself  "the 
Cambridge  Protest "  throws  on  one  side  as  unworthy  of  mention, 
and  strikes  at  me  as  the  author  of  a  tyrannical  and  unheard  of 
claim.  One  gets  a  glimpse  of  how  not  only  fashion  but  history 
is  made. 

On  the  nth  he  wrote  to  the  Dean  of  Windsor : — 

I  am  thankful  you  are  coming  to-morrow — and  hope  you  will 
be  able  to  come  in  good  time.  I  shall  much  want  to  know  what 
you  think  of  many  things,  especially  that  Ely  Diocesan  Protest 
and 's  utterances  and  what  they  are  likely  to  come  to. 

What  do  they  suppose  can  be  the  outcome  of  their  action? 
The  Abp's  Court,  like  the  Privy  Council,  has  declared  that  this  is 


i889  PROTESTS  351 

a  lawful  Court.  That  is  all.  Are  the  Bishops  to  show  that  it 
isn't?— and  how?  It  is  scarcely  enough  to  show  that  it  ought  not 
to  be? 

On  Oct.   15th  he  writes: — 

Bishop  of  Lincoln  is  reported  in  Times  to-day  as  having 
charged  at  Grantham — to  the  effect  that  he  bowed  to  my  decision 
to  hear  him  in  my  Court  as  Metropolitan,  but  regretted  that  I 
had  not  seen  fit  to  grant  his  petition  to  be  heard  by  me  in  a 
Synod  of  the  Province.  It  is  startling  to  find  a  confessor  made 
of  such  stuff  lending  himself  to  a  party  so  soon.  His  protest  was 
not  in  form  or  in  substance  a  petition.  He  was  accused  in  a 
certain  Court  of  mine  :  the  highest  judicial  authority  declared  that 
the  Court  was  recognised  by  the  law  of  the  land :  I  ascertained 
that  it  was  recognised  by  the  law  of  the  Church,  and  gave 
judgment  that  it  was.  In  a  valid  Court  constituted  in  a  valid 
form  there  is  no  such  thing  possible  as  that  the  judge  should 
decide  to  hear  the  case  in  another  kind  of  Court.  I  had  not 
more  power  to  say  I  would  hear  him  in  Synod  of  all  the  Bishops 
of  the  Province  than  any  judge  has  to  say  he  will  not  hear  a  case 
with  a  jury  of  12  men  but  with  a  jury  of  24  or  any  other 
number — or  than  the  Judges  of  Privy  Council  themselves  to  say 
that  they  will  go  by  the  verdict  of  a  jury  and  not  by  their  own 
judgment. 

On    Nov.    I  St   he   wrote   again    to    the    Dean,  on    the 

subject  of  a  dignitary  of  the  Church  who  had  attended  a 

notoriously  Ritualistic  function  : — 

Nov.  I,  1889. 

I  just  spoke  to  Y and  told  him  of  the  letter  he  would 

receive.  He  said  "  he  did  nothing  illegal — whatever  other  people 
did  it  was  not  in  his  territory — under  his  jurisdiction.  There  was 
nothing  to  complain  of.  It  was  said  they  rang  a  bell  during  the 
Celebration ;  they  did  not — he  believed  the  outside  bell  was 
tolled — parts  of  the  function  were  rather  ludicrous — e.g.  the 
movements  of  the  3  priests  at  altar." 

This  was  the  line  I  expected. 

I  have  heard  of  a  violin  at  a  fire. 

On  Nov.  2nd  the  Archbishop  visited  Lincoln  to  open  an 
exhibition  ;  he  wrote  previously  to  Mr  Duncan  Mclnnes, 


352  THE   BISHOP   OF   LINCOLN  aet.  6o 

secretary  of  the  Cooperative  Association,  and  a  friend  since 
Lincoln  days  : — 

Private  and  Confidential. 

Addington  Park,  Croydon. 

14  Oct.  1889. 
My  dear  McInnes, 

I  have  no  doubt  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  is  going  to 
be  with  you  on  Nov  2nd. 

But  I  just  write  to  make  sure  as  it  is  important  for  me  under 
present  circumstances  (you  will  understand)  not  to  visit  Lincoln 
with  any  appearance  of  isolation  from  the  Bishop. 

You  will  insist  on  his  being  with  us.  You  know  he  is  my 
very  old  friend. 

Yours  sincerely,  E.  W.  Cantuar. 

On  Nov.  2nd  he  wrote  to  the  Dean  of  Windsor  : — 

I  could  not  telegraph  because  I  have  just  returned  (midnight) 
from  Lincoln  where  I  have  been  all  day  at  a  wonderful  working 
men's  demonstration.  It  was  a  worthy  sight  to  see  dear  Lincoln 
and  me  sitting  together  in  front  of  the  working  man's  platform — 
no  one  else  but  working  men — and  going  off  together.  He  is 
adored  there. 

Again  on  the  i  ith  :  — 

Ought  not  Denison's  letter  in  the  Guardian  to  have  some 
answer  ?  Was  ever  anything  more  gross  ?  Is  not  his  argument 
thus? 

1.  Some  Bishops  and  Priests  don't  accept  the  Court  as 
valid. 

2.  The   Archbishop   has   not   called   a   Synod   to  decide 
whether  it  is. 

3.  Argal.     It  is  invalid. 

Surely  that  is  the  fair  statement  of  his  quite  brief  "  argument." 
One  ought  to  be  able  to  command  quite  a  vet^os^  of  people 
ready  to  expose  such  fallacies  from  various  sides. 

But  while  I  myself  am  under  a  vc^os,  that  can't  be  expected. 

And  again  next  day  : — 

You  are  perfectly  right  in  supposing  that  if  all  had  to  come 
over  again  about  Bishop  of  Lincoln  I  should  feel  bound  to  do 

1  Cloud. 


1889-1890  PROTESTS  353 

exactly  what  I  have  done.     I  have  seen  no  reason  to  see  how 
a  single  step  could  have  been  rightly  varied.     Thank  God. 

He  writes  again,  Nov.  13th,  1889: — 

The  account  in  Roscoe's  Report  of  the  affair  before  the  Privy 
Council  is  just  as  misleading  in  the  opposite  direction  as  it  is 
in  the  Protest. 

R.  describes  it  as  a  decision  of  mine  appealed  against  to  Privy 
Council,  "  decided  against  me,  and  that  I  heard  it,  apparently  to 
casual  reader,  under  compulsion  from  Privy  Council."  The  world 
is  a  stupid  creature. 

Again,  Nov.  26th  : — 

Draper,  G.  Denman's  son-in-law,  writes  from  Shrewsbury  that 
they  are  being  "pestered"  with  requests  to  sign  Protests  and  that 
"most  men  sign  because  they  are  asked." 

To  Bishop  Magee  of  Peterborough,  who  had  sent  him  his 
proposed  reply  to  the  Memorialists  in  his  diocese,  he  wrote, 
Feb.  22nd,  1890: — 

I  must  hope  that  the  clear  light  you  let  in  on  more  than  one 
beloved  fallacy  may  dissipate  them,  as  it  ought  to  be  felt  among 
other  things  from  your  words  that  the  term  "claim,"  so  freely  used, 
is  not  short  of  a  condensed  libel  though  it  only  flows  from  in- 
attention to  published  facts ; 

and  after  fuller  explanation  : — 

These  are  small  matters,  but  anything  is  enough  for  either  of 
the  factions  to  fight  about — God  help  us. ...However...!  cannot 
but  hope  that  good  and  not  all  evil  may  yet  in  some  degree  flow 
from  it.     God  will  not  leave  those  who  honestly  trust  Him. 

On  Feb.  5th  the  Archbishop  wrote  in  his  Diary : — 

The  Lincoln  Trial  has  records  of  its  own  and  is  too  distasteful 
to  me  to  have  mine. 

Feb.  6ih.  Unscrupulous  protests,  reckless  of  the  divisions 
they  may  exhibit  and  of  the  shake  they  may  give,  have  been 
sedulously  pushed  about  and  have  not  had  great  success.  The 
first  people  were  the  students  of  the  Theological  College  at  Ely, 
who  expressed  their  regret  that  the  Archbishop  should  not  have 
adopted  a  course  more  consonant  with  the  principles  of  Church 
History.  I  ordained  four  of  those  little  gentlemen  at  Advent,  and 
B.  II.  23 


354  THE   CHARCxES  aet.  6o 

their  knowledge  of  all  the  rest  of  Church  History  has  yet  to  be 
acquired.     Their  luminosity  on  this  one  point  is  electrical! 

With  a  bundle  of  newspaper  cuttings  of  such  protests 
he  placed  an  extract  he  had  taken  from  a  letter  of 
Mr  Roscoe's,  who  had  published  the  report  and  written  to 
tell  him  that  only  two  hundred  copies  had  sold,  and  that 
those  had  gone  to  the  bishops,  and  to  "  a  few  eminent 
clergy  and  laymen,"  and  that,  though  the  price  had  been 
purposely  kept  low,  and  it  was  in  Mr  Roscoe's  opinion 
scarcely  possible  to  really  study  the  case  from  newspaper 
reports  at  the  time,  few  clergy  had  bought  the  report. 

The  preliminaries  over,  the  case  proper  had  come  on 
for  trial  on  the  4th  of  February,  1890,  no  further  objec- 
tions being  raised. 

The  actual  charges,  though  nominally  ten,  were  practi- 
cally seven. 

1.  Mixing  water  with  the  sacramental  wine  during 
the  service  and  subsequently  consecrating  the  Mixed  Cup. 

2.  Standing  in  the  "  Eastward  position "  during  the 
first  part  of  the  Communion  service. 

3.  Standing  during  the  prayer  of  Consecration  on  the 
West  side  of  the  table,  in  such  manner  that  the  congregation 
could  not  see  the  manual  acts  performed. 

4.  Causing  the  hymn  Agnus  Dei  to  be  sung  after  the 
Consecration  prayer. 

5.  Pouring  water  and  wine  into  the  paten  and  chalice 
after  the  service  and  afterwards  drinking  such  water  and 
wine  before  the  congregation. 

6.  The  use  of  lighted  candles  on  the  Communion 
table  or  on  the  retable  behind,  during  the  Communion 
service,  when  not  needed  for  the  purpose  of  giving  light. 

7.  During  the  Absolution  and  Benediction  making 
the  sign  of  the  Cross  with  upraised  hand  facing  the 
congregation. 


1890  THE   TRIAL  355 

On  the  7th  the  Archbishop  writes : — 

The  Court  on  the  Bishop  of  Lincohi's  case  has  sate  its  fourth 
day.  PhiUimore  has  done  very  well.  He  has  kept  very  clear 
of  the  P.  C.  decisions  while  attacking  P.  C.  reasoning  and  has 
made  points. 

On  the  20th  he  writes : — 

PhiUimore  is  learned  and  quick,  but  delights  to  believe 
himself  omnidoct  and  omnidocent.  He  has  thrown  away  his  case 
about  the  "north  side"  by  urging  us  to  accept  a  "non-natural" 
interpretation— that  will  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  controversy, — 
which  however  from  first  to  last  is  naught  and  naughty.  The 
only  excuse  for  touching  it  is  that  a  rational  decision,  if  one  can  be 
arrived  at  with  such  premises,  offers  more  prospect  of  peace  than 
leaving  all  to  be  fought  about  daily. 

The  proceedings  closed  on  Feb.  25th,  the  Archbishop 
reserving  his  judgment.  He  worked  at  it  as  far  as  he 
could  in  London,  and  it  was  astonishing  how  in  the 
intervals  of  other  work  which  could  not  slacken,  he  threw 
himself  into  this  like  a  student  who  had  little  else  to  do. 
He  had  written  an  earlier  memorandum  : — 

Read  anything  general  to  enable  oneself  to  follow  the  argu- 
ments— but  do  not  study  concrete  points  until  after  having  heard 
the  arguments. 

Now  was  the  time  for  such  study.  Bishop  Davidson 
describes  how  he  would  go  into  his  dressing-room  at 
Lambeth  and  find  him  surrounded  with  stacks  of  books, 
deep  in  Liturgiology,  as  if  he  had  nothing  else  to  do; 
having  the  Lambeth  Library  ransacked  or  making  lists 
of  references  to  be  worked  out  in  the  British  Museum  ^ 

But  the  work  could  not  be  finished  in  London,  and  he 
completed  it  at  the  Rieder  Furca  Hotel,  near  the  Bel  Alp, 
where  he  went  in  August. 

1  One  of  his  friends  of  earlier  years,  the  Rev.  Christopher  Wordsworth,  son 
of  Bishop  Wordsworth  of  Lincoln,  gave  him  much  valuable  help  in  examining 
details  and  verifying  references. 

23—2 


356  WRITING  THE   JUDGMENT  aet.  6i 

On  September  I2th  he  wrote  in  his  Diary,  at  the  Rieder 
Furca  : — 

Finished  last  night  the  conclusion  and  the  Proem  of  the 
Judgment  in  the  Lincoln  Case,  the  whole  of  which  I  had  finished 
here  and  packed  off  to  the  printer.  It  has  occupied  all  my 
mornings  rather  sadly  and  laboriously,  but  I  believe  it  to  be  true 
and  the  arguments  sound. 

He  returned  to  England  in  the  course  of  September ; 
on  Oct,  4th  he  finished  and  sent  off  the  final  proofs  of 
the  Lincoln  Judgment :    he  writes  : — 

It  has  just  struck  midnight  by  m.y  chimney  clock  and  I  have 
just  finished  and  sent  off  to  the  printer  my  final  proofs  for  reading 
to  the  Assessors  of  my  Judgment  on  the  Lincoln  Case.  It  has 
been  an  immense  labour.  Reading,  verifying,  reasoning  and 
writing  and  recriticising  and  correcting,  and  real  exploration  of 
a  labyrinth.  I  have  found  the  former  Privy  Council  judgments 
very  deficient  in  knowledge  and  with  no  breadth  of  view.  But 
nothing  will  matter,  if  it  only  is  itself  a  contribution,  as  I  believe 
it  ought  to  be,  to  the  peace  of  the  Church — and  to  a  sounder, 
more  scientific  study  of  ritual.  It  has  been  gx\&vo\is\y  penibk  to 
write,  because  the  topics  are  so  infinitesimal  in  comparison  to 
others  which  ought  to  be  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  churchmen. 
Still,  God  has  given  it  me  to  do,  and  what  is  to  be  done  is  to  be 
done  as  well  as  one  can  do  it.  This  has  been  the  prayer  within 
my  heart  unfailingly.  I  thank  Him  for  allowing  me  to  say  that  my 
one  hope  has  been  to  be  faithful — sure  that  out  of  faithfulness 
the  only  good  that  can  come  must  come.  Oratio  pro  sententia 
Lincoln  : 

Ne  vox  una  velit  se  fingere  vel  sibi  fingi ; 

Sub  digito  crescat  syllaba  quaeque  Dei. 

It  is  a  very  odd  thing  that  one  of  the  earliest  notes  I  ever  made, 
when  I  began  to  collect  topics  for  a  commonplace  book,  was  an 
extract  from  Ed.  VI.  injunctions  about  Lights.  I  was  about  13 
then,  and  here  I  am  61  and  at  the  same  poor  thing  still.  One  of 
the  first  things  I  ever  bought  with  my  own  money  was  Doctor 
Bisse's  Beauty  of  Holiness  in  the  Common  Prayer — a  nice  old 
handsomely  printed  book  which  I  sillily  set  to  work  not  only  to 
read  but  to  rubricate  !     So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  what  a  penance 


1890  POSTPONEMENT  357 

for  a  penchant !  But  the  two  years'  hindrance  to  my  Cyprian  will 
be  nothing,  if  only  Peace  should  come  to  our  troubled  Church 
through  it. 

Dne,  qui  dixisti  Apostohs  tuis, 
"Pacem  relinquo  vobis, 
Pacem  meam  do  vobis," 
Ne  respicias  Drie  peccata  mea, 

Sed  fidem  eccae  Tuae, 
Eamque   secundum   verbum    tuum  pacificare  et  coordinare 
digneris — 
Qui  vivis  et  regnas. 

This  extract  brings  into  relief — what  indeed  must  have 
been  evident  throughout — his  feeling  that,  interesting  as  the 
subject  was  to  him  naturally,  it  was  almost  as  a  hobby,  a 
"penchant"  as  he  says,  that  he  regarded  it ;  and  that,  com- 
pared with  the  feelings  it  stirred,  the  weight  which  was 
given  to  it,  the  legal  questions  implied,  and  the  interruption 
to  the  true  work  of  the  Church,  the  original  contention  was 
infinitely  little.  "  It  is  agonising,"  he  writes  under  the 
pressing  fear  of  bereavement,  "to  be  working  at  candles 
and  ends  with  my  Nelly  so  ill  overhead." 

In  consequence  of  my  sister's  death,  the  delivery  of  the 
Judgment  was  postponed  till  Nov.  21st. 

I  came  up  to  London  to  hear  part  of  the  Judgment 
delivered,  and  found  my  father  in  very  serene  and  dignified 
spirits.  He  had  had  periods  of  very  great  anxiety  and 
depression  about  the  Trial,  and  as  a  matter  of  deliberate 
policy  rather  deferred  than  hastened  the  proceedings,  that 
the  sensation  might  have  time  to  simmer  down,  and  that 
no  rash  action  might  result  from  tension  of  feeling.  What 
he  feared  was  the  ultimate  issue  of  the  Trial,  the  possi- 
bility of  his  decision  increasing  rather  than  diminishing 
the  dissidence  between  the  lay  and  the  clerical  views  of 
religious  worship ;  as  to  his  own  responsibility  in  the 
matter,  he  had  no  fear  or  doubt  whatever.     When  once 


358  JUDGMENT   DELIVERED  aet.  6i 

his  course  was  clear,  and  in  discharge  of  a  duty  of  great 
solemnity,  he  was  calm  and  tranquil  to  a  remarkable 
degree.  Depression  was  with  him  the  concomitant  of  a 
time  of  ease,  not  of  a  time  of  stress.  Here  too  he  was 
sustained  by  the  knowledge  that  what  had  passed  had 
deepened  and  intensified  the  mutual  reverence  and  affection 
between  himself  and  the  Bishop  for  whose  sympathy  and 
heavenly-mindedness,  as  he  called  it,  he  had  the  greatest 
veneration.  He  was  stimulated  too  by  the  consciousness 
that  for  once  he  was  in  a  position,  with  regard  to  know- 
ledge and  erudition,  which  \yas  simply  unassailable.  He 
had  a  few  minutes'  talk  with  me  before  the  proceedings 
and  described  some  of  the  ceremonial  arrangements,  de- 
vised by  himself,  such  as  the  laying  of  the  Metropolitical 
cross  on  the  table  beneath  the  judge  to  be  a  symbol  of  his 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  as  the  mace  of  secular  authority. 

The  scene  in  the  great  library  was  very  impressive. 
That  vast  room  with  its  high  timbered  roof  and  the  tall 
cases  of  books  was  a  singularly  striking  setting  for  the 
solemn  scene  enacted.  The  Bishops  sat  in  a  semicircle, 
the  Archbishop  being  in  the  centre  with  his  seat  raised, 
all  in  full  episcopal  robes ;  Sir  James  Parker  Deane  in  a 
full-bottomed  wig  and  scarlet  Doctor's  gown,  gave  a  legal 
colouring  to  the  assembly.  The  Hall  was  densely  crowded, 
almost  every  eminent  High  Churchman  being  seen  there  at 
some  stage  of  the  proceedings. 

The  charges  against  the  Bishop  were  all  admitted,  but 
the  real  question  which  was  being  still  anxiously  debated 
outside  was  whether  the  Archbishop  would  in  his  Judg- 
ment accept  previous  rulings  of  the  Privy  Council  as 
absolute,  or  would  disregard  them,  going  de  novo  into  the 
whole  matter. 

But  the  Archbishop's  attitude  was  neither  one  of  un- 
questioning obedience,  nor  of  defiant  disregard.    He  said  : — 


1890  THE   JUDGMENT   SUMMARISED  359 

The  Court  has  considered  with  the  utmost  carefulness  and 
respect  the  various  decisions  which  have  been  given  in  recent 
years  upon  some  of  the  points  at  issue. ...  It  cannot  be  necessary 
that  the  Court  should  express  its  sense  of  the  importance  attaching 
to  such  decisions,  so  far  as  they  bear  upon  the  present  case,  for 
the  elucidation  of  these  minute  and  complicated  questions. 
Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  points  raised  in  the  suit  before  us 
are  some  of  them  novel,  and  all  of  them  are  raised  under 
conditions  differing  from  those  of  former  suits :  Inasmuch  also 
as  the  researches  of  later  students  have  brought  much  fresh 
observation  to  bear  upon  historical  points  admittedly  obscure, 
the  Court  has  not  felt  it  right  so  to  shelter  itself  under  authority, 
as  to  evade  the  responsibility,  ox  escape  the  labour  of  examining 
each  of  the  points  afresh,  in  the  light  of  this  ampler  historical 
research,  and  of  weighing  once  again  all  the  reasons  which  may 
be  advanced  either  for  or  against  any  of  the  actions  or  usages 
now  under  consideration. 

In  support  of  this  view  he  referred  to  the  words  of 
Lord  Chancellor  Cairns  in  the  Ridsdale  Case  in   1877. 

I  cannot  do  more  than  summarise  the  Judgment,  giving 
in  the  briefest  way  the  reasons  and  conclusions  on  each 
point. 

The  first  article  was  the  Mixing  Water  with  Wine 
in  the  Service, — and  here  the  Judgment  concluded  that 
though  the  administration  of  a  Mixed  Cup  could  not  be 
condemned  on  the  ground  of  "  symbolic  meaning "  "  un- 
authoritatively  attached  "  to  it ;  and  that  "  the  practice  of 
mixing  water  with  the  wine  apart  from  and  before  the 
service  cannot  be  disallowed  upon  the  ground  that  it  was 
unknown  to  the  Churches  of  East  and  West,"  yet  that 
"  the  ceremonial  mixture  in  the  Service  was  omitted  from 
our  Book  in  accordance  with  the  highest  and  widest 
liturgical  precedents,  and  must  in  our  Church  be  accounted 
as  one  '  of  the  accustomed  ceremonies  which  be  put  away.'  " 
Thus  the  Court  decided  against  the  defendant  on  this 
article. 


36o  EASTWARD   POSITION  aet.  6i 

The  next  charge  dealt  with  was  the  Eastward  Position 
in  the  first  part  of  the  Communion  Service,  The  judgment 
on  this  point  involved  a  long  historical  inquiry  as  to  "  the 
conditions  which  called  for  the  introduction  of  the  term  'north 
side/"  in  which  it  was  developed  that  "  the  north  end  became 
the  generally  used  position  and  is  beyond  question  a  true 
liturgical  use  in  the  Church  of  England,  formed  as  primitive 
uses  were  formed,  not  by  enactment,  but,  as  the  word  itself 
implies,  by  use."  The  argument  of  the  Responsive  Plea 
that  "  the  northern  part  of  the  front "  is  "  the  north  side  of 
the  Table  as  directed  by  the  Rubric"  was  "held  by  the 
Court  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  continuous  history  of  the 
Rubric."  On  the  other  hand,  the  plea  that  the  "  Eastward 
Position"  has  as  a  Sacrificial  position  "a  special  significance 
which  at  once  makes  the  position  itself  important  and 
condemns  it,"  was  entirely  and  strongly  set  aside. 

There  may  be  ill-informed  recent  maintainers  of  this  position  as 
essential,  who  may  be  found  to  have  alleged  something  of  the 
kind.  If  it  were  true  it  would  apply  more  strongly  by  far  to  the 
Consecration  Prayer,  where  such  a  position  is  admitted  to  be 
lawful,  than  to  the  beginning  of  the  Service.  But  by  whomsoever 
put  forward,  the  statement  is,  in  both  cases,  without  foundation. 
Neither  those  who  approve  nor  those  who  disapprove  of  an  action 
which  is  recognised  by  authority  can  really  invest  it  with  any 

sense  contrary  to  the  sense  of  the  authority  which  recognises 

The  imputed  sacrificial  aspect  of  the  Eastward  Position  is  new 
and  forced. 

Thus  the  Court  concluded  that  "  the  term  '  north  side  ' 
was  introduced... to  meet  doubts  which  had  arisen  owing 
to  a  general  change  in  the  position  of  the  Holy  Tables"... 
and  that  "  a  second  general  change  made  under  authority 
in  the  position  of  the  Tables... made  the  north  side  direction 
impossible  of  fulfilment  in  the  sense  originally  intended"... 
that  the  Court  was  therefore  of  opinion  "  that  a  certain 
liberty  in  the  application  of  the  term  existed,"  and  though 


1890  THE   MANUAL  ACTS  361 

"  this  liberty  was  less  and  less  exercised  for  a  long  time  " 
"  it  does  not  appear  to  be  lost  by  that  fact  or  taken  away." 
Thus  the  charge  was  dismissed. 

With  regard  to  the  charge  that  the  Bishop  stood  in  such 
a  way  that  the  congregation  could  not  see  the  Manual 
Acts,  the  Court  concluded  that  the  Minister  "  is  bound 
to  take  care  that  the  Manual  Acts  should  not  by  his 
position  be  rendered  invisible  to  the  bulk  of  the  congre- 
gation " ;  that  no  lack  of  openness  necessarily  follows  upon 
the  use  of  the  Eastward  Position.  "  The  tenor  of  the 
Common  Prayer  is  openness.  The  work  of  its  framers 
was  to  bring  out  and  recover  the  worship  of  the  Christian 
congregation,  and  specially  to  replace  the  Eucharist  in  its 
character  as  the  Communion  of  the  whole  Body  of  Christ." 
"The  English  Church  as  one  of  her  special  works  in  the 
history  of  the  Catholic  Church  restored  the  ancient  share 
and  right  of  the  people  in  the  Divine  Service." 

The  Bishop  had  pleaded  that  he  had  no  wish  or  inten- 
tion to  hide  the  Acts,  but  the  Court  decided  that  "  in  the 
mind  of  the  Minister  there  ought  to  be  a  wish  and 
intention  to  do  what  has  to  be  done,  not  merely  no  wish 
or  intention  not  to  do  it  "...and  ruled  therefore  "that  the 
Lord  Bishop  has  mistaken  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
Order  of  the  Holy  Communion  in  this  particular." 

The  next  charge  dealt  with  was  the  singing  of  the 
Agnus  Dei  "  immediately  after  the  Prayer  of  Consecration." 
Here  the  Court  concluded  that  the  use  of  these  words 

could  only  be  condemned  on  the  ground  that  any  and  every 
hymn  at  this  place  would  be  illegal,  which  cannot  be  maintained 
in  the  face  of  concurrent,  continuous  and  sanctioned  usage.  To 
condemn  the  singing  of  that  text  here  as  unsound  in  doctrine 
would  be  contrary  to  the  real  force  of  Ridley's  injunction  :  and  to 
other  unexceptionable  Protestant  teaching. 

The   charge    of  performing   an    illegal    "  ceremony   of 


362  LIGHTS  AET.  6i 

ablution  "  was  dismissed.  The  Court  could  not  hold  "  that 
the  Minister,  who,  after  the  Service  was  ended  and  the 
Benediction  given,  in  order  that  no  part  of  the  Consecrated 
Elements  should  be  carried  out  of  the  Church,  cleansed 
the  vessels  of  all  remnants  in  a  reverent  way  without 
ceremony  or  prayers  before  finally  leaving  the  Holy  Table, 
would  have  subjected  himself  to  penal  consequences  by  so 
doing.  In  this  case,  it  would  have  been  illegal  to  vary  the 
Service  by  making  the  '  ceremony  of  ablution  '  charged  in 
the  articles,  or  the  like,  appear  to  be  part  of  it,  but  the 
evidence  does  not  show  that  this  was  done." 

The  next  count  "  both  charged  and  admitted,  is  that 
two  lights  in  candlesticks  on  the  Holy  Table  were  alight 
from  before  the  Communion  Service  began  till  after  it  was 
over."     Here  the  Court  found  that 

It  would  be  contrary  to  the  history  and  interpretation  of  the 
two  lights  on  the  Holy  Table  to  connect  them  with  erroneous  and 
strange  teaching  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Sacrament.  It  is  not 
likely  that  they  will  cease  to  be  distasteful  to  many  minds,  and 
where  that  is  the  case,  even  in  a  small  degree,  charity  and  good 
sense  ought  not  to  be  violated. 

The  lawfulness  of  lighting  the  candles  in  the  course  of  the 
Service  is  not  before  us.  But  the  Court  does  not  find  sufficient 
warrant  for  declaring  that  the  law  is  broken  by  the  mere  fact  of 
two  lighted  candles,  when  not  wanted  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
light,  standing  on  the  Holy  Table  continuously  through  the  Service : 
nothing  having  been  performed  or  done,  which  comes  under  the 
definition  of  a  ceremony,  by  the  presence  of  the  two  still  lights 
alight  before  it  begins  and  until  after  it  ends. 

One  little  incident  which  occurred  about  this  point  is 
perhaps  worth  mentioning  to  show  the  absence  of  all 
agitation  in  my  father.  It  was  afternoon,  and  the  day 
being  very  dark  and  foggy,  he  became  unable  to  decipher 
his  Judgment.  He  turned,  caught  sight  of  me  as  I 
stood  close  behind  him,  and  asked  me  to  summon  one  of 
the  chaplains,  who  came  at  once ;    he  read    a   few   more 


1890  CONCLUSION  363 

words  about  the  altar-lights,  and  then  said  in  an  undertone 
to  the  chaplain,  with  a  smile,  "  We  want  lights — for 
practical  purposes." 

The  last  charges  taken  were  those  of  signing  the  Cross 
in  the  Absolution  and  the  Benediction. 

Here  the  Court  found  that  such  crossing  in  each  place 
was  a  "  ceremony,"  "  not  retained  since  it  had  not  pre- 
viously existed,"  but  "  an  innovation  which  must  be 
discontinued." 

So  far  there  had  been  intense  eagerness  among  the 
audience, — even  through  the  long,  minute  and  sometimes 
technical  historical  inquiry  interest  had  flagged  not  a  whit, 
held  as  it  was  by  the  vigour,  the  learning  and  the  argument 
both  subtle  and  forcible.  At  one  point,  on  the  outcome 
of  which  the  listeners  were  peculiarly  interested,  applause 
broke  out  which  was  instantly  and  sternly  hushed,  my 
father  declaring  that  if  it  were  renewed  the  Court  would  be 
instantly  cleared. 

But  nothing  which  concerned  the  charges  themselves 
was  so  weighty  and  impressive  as  the  words  in  which  he 
concluded.  Indeed,  so  eloquent  were  voice  and  manner,  so 
full  of  dignity  and  of  spirit,  that  it  was  difficult  afterwards 
in  looking  at  the  printed  page  to  believe  that  the  words 
themselves  had  been  so  few  and  so  restrained. 

A  Court  constituted  as  is  the  present,  having  wider  duties 
towards  all  parties  concerned  than  those  of  other  judges,  duties 
inalienable  from  that  position  which  makes  its  members  judges, 
considers  itself  bound  further  to  observe  briefly  in  relation  to 
this  cause  that, — 

(i)  Although  religious  people  whose  religious  feelings  really 
suffer  might  rightly  feel  constrained  to  come  forward  as  witnesses 
in  such  a  case,  yet  it  is  not  decent  for  religious  persons  to  hire 
witnesses  to  intrude  on  the  worship  of  others  for  purposes  of 
espial.  In  expressing  this  opinion  the  Court  has  no  intention  of 
criticizing  the  statements  which  were  in  this  case  given  in  evidence. 

(2)     The  Court  has  not  only  felt  deeply  the  incongruity  of 


364  CRITICISM  AET.  61 

minute  questionings  and  disputations  in  great  and  sacred  subjects, 
but  desires  to  express  its  sense  that  time  and  attention  are  diverted 
thereby  from  the  Church's  real  contest  with  evil  and  building  up 
of  good,  both  by  those  who  give  and  by  those  who  take  offence 
unadvisedly  in  such  matters. 

(3)  The  Apostolic  Judgment  as  to  other  matters  of  ritual  has 
a  proper  reference  to  these ;  namely,  that  things  which  may  neces- 
sarily be  ruled  to  be  lawful  do  not  for  that  reason  become 
expedient. 

(4)  Public  worship  is  one  of  the  Divine  Institutions,  which 
are  the  heritage  of  the  Church,  for  the  fraternal  union  of  mankind. 

The  Church,  therefore,  has  a  right  to  ask  that  her  congregations 
may  not  be  divided  either  by  needless  pursuance  or  by  exaggerated 
suspicion  of  practices  not  in  themselves  illegal.  Either  spirit  is 
in  painful  contrast  to  the  deep  and  wide  desire  which  prevails 
for  mutual  understanding.  The  Clergy  are  the  natural  prompters 
and  fosterers  of  the  Divine  instinct,  "  to  follow  after  things  which 
make  for  peace,  and  things  wherewith  one  may  edify  another'." 

In  the  evening  he  banished  the  whole  subject  from  his 
mind  and  talked  with  great  enthusiasm  on  some  literary 
question. 

In  the  days  that  followed,  when  criticism  was  filling  the 
papers,  when  the  issue  of  the  appeal  was  still  uncertain,  he 
was  able  in  a  singular  manner  to  keep  himself  aloof  from 
harassing  doubts  and  anxieties.  His  part  was  done  as 
sincerely  as  he  could  do  it — although  anxiety  could  not  be 
absent — and  in  a  spirit  of  calmness  and  faith  ;  the  sorrow 
too  that  he  had  lately  endured  had  lifted  him  into  a 
serener  atmosphere  free  from  the  strife  of  tongues.  Such 
record  of  his  personal  life  we  must  leave  to  the  diaries. 

In  summing  up  the  general  effect  of  the  Judgment,  it 
must  be  remembered  how  many  parties  were  interested, 
and  for  how  many  reasons.  Extremists  on  both  sides 
were  interested  in  particular  points,  but  with  the  far  larger 
bulk   of  moderate    Churchmen    any    keenness   about   the 

^  The  Judgment  is  reported  in  (1891)  Probate,  p.  9.  It  occupies,  with  the 
appendices,  99  pages  of  the  Law  Reports. 


1890  RECEPTION    OF   THE   JUDGMENT  365 

original  questions  had  long  since  given  way  to  anxiety  as 
to  the  possible  effects  on  the  peace  of  the  Church  of  any 
line  which  it  seemed  open  to  the  Archbishop  to  take. 

The  first  and  most  general  feeling  was  undoubtedly 
one  of  amazement  at  the  learning  exhibited  and  at  the 
freedom  and  courage  with  which  the  whole  question  was 
treated. 

The  Guardian,  which  the  week  before  had  stated  : — 

It  is  hardly  likely  that  the  ceremonialists  who  have  refused  to 
recognise  the  secular  Court,  will  be  suddenly  converted  to  obedi- 
ence in  the  special  Court  in  which  the  Archbishop  has  revived  his 
Metropolitan  Jurisdiction, 

wrote  as  follows  : — 

In  its  character  and  manner — let  it  be  frankly  and  thankfully 
acknowledged — the  Judgment  leaves  very  little  to  be  desired.  It 
is  a  document  which  may  hold  a  high  place  among  the  records  of 
ecclesiastical  judicature ;  it  is  conceived  and  worked  out  in  a  way 
which  brings  new  hope  into  the  aspect  of  affairs.  In  an  age 
when  hesitation  and  faint-heartedness  are  apt  to  take  the  place  of 
statesmanship,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  has  done  a  more 
courageous  thing  than  any  prelate  has  even  attempted  for  many 

years In  t